Southall struck off

[ElenyaTuesday]

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Southall

did anyone see the letter in the Guardian today from a bunch of paediatricians supporting Southall and claiming he was the victim of a witch-hunt? Appalling. He's clearly not the only one suffering from a lack of insight...

Link here

"There is a determined campaign to deny the existence and reality of child abuse in all its forms, led by a small group, aided and abetted by some journalists and politicians."

What a load of twaddle. No-one is trying to deny it exists. It just needs to be investigated openly with proper standards of evidence.

This is a quote from John Hemming's blog:

'These are not zero sum issues. We are doing badly in this country at preventing the abuse of children. Many children are dying at the hands of abusers. If inappropriate investigations are occurring that are overwhelming the system with work that prevents it concentrating on the more risky situations then that is not helpful in achieving the objective of protecting children.'

The Guardian letter writers probably all feel sorry for Roy Meadow too.

They aren't doing their profession any kind of a service by writing a letter like that.

What pisses me off most is the really self-righteous tone - implication: we the child protection professionals are the only people who care about child abuse and anyone who questions what we do clearly doesn't care as much as we do.

quite, Kathy. What they really mean is 'we are above criticism'.

I think there is a really dangerous interpretation of 'the best interests of the child' that rests on pitting the child against the parent. And the authorities believe they are the only ones qualified or able to define 'the best interests'. Never mind how terrible it is for the child to be torn from loving parents, or for children in foster care to be moved five times a year, coming home from school to find a SW outside their door ready to shove them somewhere else with no warning.

I find the Royal College of Paediatrician's defense of the indefensible quite terrifying. Even if they thought Southall was right about MSbP, how can they think hiding files and experimenting on babies is OK? How can they?

If it were the police, they would be saying "this is one bad apple, but don't tar us all with the same brush". The RCP in contrast, are basically saying "he is representative of our profession adn we are going to close ranks".

Bloody terrifying. I hope to God my child is never ill enough to need a paediatrician. If s/he is, I think I might go abroad and seek the services of the profession in a country which hasn't been infected by this lunacy.

The opposition to investigation makes you wonder how much everyone else has to hide.

What qualifications do you need to be a social worker?
The pediatricians don't have that excuse, of course.

My godmother, who was a very senior social worker (but has been retired for decades) says the problem is they've made it graduate entry. So you get all these wet-behind-the-ears young things with no life experience thrust into situations that they cannot comprehend... put them in a high-stress environment, with severe staff shortages, and watch the whole thing go very, very wrong.

I have certainly met student social workers (the department where I work at uni is next door to the social work dept and we share a tearoom) who I could see coming into that category. They tend to be very political in their outlook - usually in ways I agree with, but often scarily dogmatic.

Edam/Kathy I've been saying this for years!!

How can a dogmatic young graduate,albeit with good intentions, start to deal with a young single mum in a grotty house/flat with 3 pre-school kids & no man/other family around? Or a well-educated but equally violent control freak in a leafy suburb who's beating the bejasus out of his family?

Fast forward 5,10 or 20 years & a SW student will at least have a bit of life experience behind them to back up the theories they learn at uni.

OK sweeping generalisations maybe but you get my drift?

Oh meant to add that goes for dogmatic paediatricians as well!

Front page of my local paper this evening. This relates to the CNEP trials and possible forged consents too.

Good for them I wish them luck.

This man is a liability and has been for years - my only amazement is that it has taken so long. There has been loads of complaints and disquiet strectching back years. Am sure he thought he was acting in the interests of children BUT he over stepped the mark waaayyy too much (and that's a major understatement).

Did anyone hear him on the Today programme at 8.20? Wasn't John Humphries polite?!

Throughout the interview Southall was unable to utter the words, 'I got it wrong and I am sorry.'

He did say he would be appealing though, because the GMC are wrong because they didn't have a paediatrician on the judging panel, so there was no-one trained in child protection there. Do you have to be trained in child protection to know that secreting 4500 case files where the information is not duplicated elsewhere is wrong?

Yeah, I heard it. Disgusting attempt at self-justifiction. Not even a glimmer of an idea that he might just possibly have done anything wrong.

The GMC were dead right about lack of insight.

Missed it-just as well sounds like I'd have been shouting at the radio & throwing things!

@ John Humphries being polite- he usually chews 'em up & spits them out in bits!

why are the media even giving him a voice. He's been struck off - why the hell is he being interviewed? .

They had the mother of one of the children on this morning and she was talking about how she thinks her ds was experimented on - he now has brain damage .

I'd like to know exactly why Southall was 'interviewing' a bereaved mother and accusing her of murder. He's not an effing police officer! Sounds like advanced meglomania - he seems to have been under the impression he's the hero of a TV series, like the fictional pathologists who acutally investigate crime.

Edam, that sounds about right!

Edam..and because of his megalomania & ability to convince people he's right we have had the sorts of miscarriage of justice we've been debating about on the FL threads.

How many SW's/barristers/other doctors are kicking themselves for using him as an expert witness in all genuine belief that they were getting "the best".? how many lives ruined because of the actions resulting from his evil research & deluded opinions?