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Kathleen Danby and the Court of Protection

The Court had the sense to allow Mrs Danby to purge her contempt today and be released.  G4S, however, decided that the court order was not enough and they needed permission from the prison service.  In the mean time her handbag had been left in Derbyshire and her suitcase left in a hotel in Liverpool.  Her tickets had run out to return to Orkney yesterday and she was dumped by the system in Birmingham.  Luckily the Daily Mail have agreed to help her get home.

Even if the original court orders on contact had reliable expert evidence and the conclusion of the court on only hearing one side of the argument was right (about both of which issues there are questions). Derbyshire County Council have serious questions to ask as to where the public interest was in spending the money to get her dragged out of a Ken Dodd concert to be taken around the country. It is also obvious that although there is potentially an argument to convict her in her absence there is no argument to sentence her.

Because she was not contactable yesterday or today, it was impossible to ensure she had legal representation.  I was prepared, therefore, to act as her McKenzie friend today, but in fact a solicitor was found at the last minute.

It remains, however, that the system as a whole has treated a particular grandparent very badly this holiday period and she is owed a number of apologies starting with Derbyshire County Council.

As I say in this story:   "It is ordinary people subject to an abuse of power, and there's many more of these cases going on.  These are the strange sorts of things that happen in this country."




Photo on the Mirror website following the court hearing.

This looks back at the Platt report and its conclusions about parents (and grandparents) visiting children in hospital. This has a sensible carry through into cases such as the Danby case.

Comments

Mike Clarke said…
I would like to THANK YOU too for Kathy Danby... for your time and your energy in helping out of this horrific situation GOOD ON YOU JOHN and a Happy New Year to you and your family xx
Jane Jackson said…
Sadly this is not an isolated case.http://johnhemming.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/kathleen-danby-and-court-of-protection.html
John Hemming said…
Best that I am emailed about any other cases (john.hemming@john.hemming.name or john@hemming.email)

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