State officials shrug unrepentantly

The Daily Mail tells the outrageous story of how children were not only snatched from their parents for no good reason but also placed where it would be difficult for their father to see them.

It took 19 months for the devastated family to be reunited – when a judge exonerated the parents and strongly criticised the social workers and police responsible for the appalling error....

The 6am police swoop, which involved 14 officers descending on a quiet Hampshire cul-de-sac, was described by the judge as ‘utterly disproportionate’ and ‘itself abusive of the children involved’.

At a four-week hearing at Portsmouth County Court, Judge Marston praised the parents for being ‘caring, loving’ parents and criticised Hampshire County Council for failing to prove any of its claims.

In his judgment, he said:

What happened here is that a picture was painted before the facts were properly analysed, indeed before many of the facts were actually known, and then the facts were made to fit the picture.

Is officialdom contrite?

You bet they're not.

John Coughlan, Hampshire County Council’s director of children’s services, said that the council had acted with the ‘best motives’, adding: ‘It is our duty as a local authority to secure the wellbeing of children.’

"Best motives" doesn't begin to cover Social Services' power-crazed fabrication.

Nest up is Detective Superintendent Nigel Lecointe, head of the public protection department of Hampshire Constabulary. He said he accepted his officers’ actions had been ‘perceived to be heavy-handed’ and ‘had a significant long-term effect on the family’.

No, you got it wrong and it must have been obvious at the time that you had got it wrong.

So who is going to step up and fire them for their outrageous abuse of power?

(We taxpayers pay their salaries, by the way.)