Haringey: the tragic betrayal of another child

DAMNING new evidence of the incompetence of Haringey child protection services is revealed today.

The council at the centre of the Baby P scandal snatched another child from a loving foster parent and put him into the care of a couple now at the centre of an investigation into abuse.

Baby C was taken after social workers acting on the orders of disgraced children's director Sharon Shoesmith launched a court battle to take the baby boy from his foster mother, who had applied to become his guardian.

The highly experienced foster mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has now disclosed the full, shocking story to the Evening Standard. It includes her version of how the child, now five and known as Child C, was seized by one of Ms Shoesmith's staff as he played outside his home.

As the social worker ran with the child to a car, the boy screamed for his foster mother, who was physically restrained by a Haringey social services manager.

The council then fast-tracked adoption procedures to place Child C with the couple now being questioned by police over allegations of abuse.

Ms Shoesmith has gone into hiding after she was sacked because of her role in the death of Baby P. She was dismissed from her £100,000-a-year post without a pay-off last night after being suspended last week by Children's Secretary Ed Balls when a damning report found systemic failures in her department.

Ms Shoesmith will still receive a "gold-plated" pension worth up to £1.5 million, and she could legally challenge the decision to deny her a pay-off as she was expected to be entitled to a six-figure severance package.

She failed to return to her Bloomsbury flat last night and her family refused to say where she was. She would not be back until next month, they said.

She caused a furore when she failed to apologise over the death of 17-month-old Baby P, who died after a sustained period of abuse at the hands of his mother, her partner and a lodger.

Ms Shoesmith, 55, played a key role in the handling of Child C. Her department wanted to place the child, who is of African descent, with black adoptive parents and rejected appeals from his foster mother, who is of north African origin but is not black.

The foster mother was one of the borough's approved foster parents and had previously successfully looked after a baby taken from its mother at birth.

Now the Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Investigation Command has been called in to investigate allegations that after he was adopted Child C suffered abuse.

He has been treated twice in hospital, once for a head injury.

The inquiry team has been told the boy's adoptive mother rejected him and complained he was ruining her marriage.

Health professionals familiar with the case were disturbed that Haringey social services department was not acting.

One, consultant child psychiatrist Hamish Cameron, who had compiled a report on Child C, decided to call in the police.