Fact Sheet #26: A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE AND A CHRISTMAS DEDICATION

Imagine the scene if Mary had given birth to her baby between 1950-1975.

• An unmarried mother
• A runaway
• Homeless
• No means of support
• Father unknown
• Claims to be a virgin
• In denial
• Says God fathered her child
• Suspected mental health problems
• Living with an older man, not the baby’s father
• Mary condemned as morally deficient
• Illegitimate baby boy at risk
• Social Workers seek Emergency Care Order
• Baby forcibly taken from Mary
• ‘Adoption in baby’s best interests’
• Mary asks for her baby back
• Mary’s consent dispensed with
• Baby adopted by morally superior married childless couple
• Details of baby’s true identity hidden
• The first Christmas erased forever

In Memory of John Smith, aged 4

This page is dedicated to the memory of John Smith who died on Christmas Eve 1999, aged 4.

John suffered severe brain haemorrhaging, caused by blows normally seen on a battered boxer. 54 visible injuries, including adult bite marks and having his hair torn out.
His prospective adopters were sentenced to eight years.

Reported in Hansard, October 29th, 2001.

Copyright © Patricia Basquill, 2002 - 2008