‘They stole my little girl,’ says mother judged too stupid to care for her baby:
A young mother who was judged too stupid to care for her own baby has accused social workers of ‘stealing’ the child from her.
The woman, who must be identified only as Rachel for legal reasons, is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights in a last ditch attempt to halt the adoption of the child, now aged three.
She has told the Mail that she was bitterly unhappy with her treatment at the hands of social workers at Nottingham City Council.
Her daughter, referred to only as K, was born three months prematurely with severe medical complications. Officials felt the first-time mother lacked the intelligence to cope with the child and care for her in safety.
K was eventually discharged from hospital and given to a foster family.
But although her health has now improved to the point where she needs little or no day-to-day care, the child is due to be handed to adoptive parents within three months.
Rachel will then be barred from further contact.
The adoption is going ahead despite a recent psychiatrist’s report which declared that the 24-year-old has ‘good literacy and numeracy and that her general intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range’.
It said the unemployed former cleaner had no previous history of learning disability or mental illness.