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I don't post on here an awful lot now, am always a little concerned that so many of you are still on the early stages of your journey and don't wish to read much about wrongful convictions!
However, I just thought I'd comment about what has happened to our little family post release.
OH was released a year ago now, and we were hoping to have established some supervised contact so my grandson could see his "dad" but no chance- the situation has gone from bad to worse, with my grandson saying he wished his dad was dtill in prison as at least he saw him once a month.
When we lived ib Scotland, we were very much overseen by the Children's Panel and had continual SS involvement as we were classed as "Kinship Carers". After our arrests I moved back to England aaand SS continued to be inolved, the SW even visiting school to speak to my grandson. He is 13 1/2 and has always stated he wants his family to be back together and he knows his dad is innocent but of courseSS see this as him having been "groomed".
Moving on- OH was released with basic license conditions from Scottish Courts, stating that he was to have no unsupervised contact with under 17s unless approved by his SUPERVISING OFFICER, no mention of SS.
At a meeting just before christmas, OH's probation officer advised OH to take a letter and card so she could approve it to send to my grandson. She also requested my grandson to be present as she had been lead to believe this was a meeting to establish a contact visit and she wanted to make sure grandson's views were heard.
Back-tracking to September of last year- SS arrived at our house with her new manager. Oh dear, what a vile , nasty individual!! Our SS is a young woman straight out of college and is actually quite pleasant and reasonable but this one? Oh Lordy!!
She marched in the house, plonked her extremely large backside on my settee , looked down her nose at me and said there was to be no contact, that was her decision.In the meantime, young ss is talking to my grandson saying they are looking at someone to supervise!! Talk about mixed messages!
Anyway, long story short, she was reprimanded for her approach and ss interviewed my older sister and said it was fine for her to supervise: she had been approved before whilst OH was on bail.
A few days later , I got a call saying that the manger had told SS that no family members could supervise and the information had come from PO. I duly rang PO and asked whether this was true and she basically accused me of lying as she had not said that to SS, what she had said was she had concerns about family members supervising. So I went back to SS and asked for a meeting which happened in december.
After the introductions, manager simply said my sister had been interviewed and wasn't suitable as she had contradicted all her answers, therefore no contact until grandson is 18. Well, I absolutely flipped!! She sat there with her "I won" condescending face and from then on it was an hour of arguing and insults.
I posted up what had happened on the FB forum and RF suggested a family lawyer I should contact. By this time , offices were closed for the festives but on return I sent a rather long email explaining the situation.
The solicitor rang a few days later and asked what "Orders"SS had put in place. I had ascertained just the day before that the Supervision order had been abandoned in 2015 and there was nothing in place except a Child in Need plan. The solicitor said in that case, SS have no jurisdiction over contact and he is prepared to take on our case . Hope fully we can have some kind of family life in the not to distant future,
What I'm trying to get across by writing this, is that we never questioned authority, we've never had to. As part of an older generation, we just assumed that those in authority were right and trustworthy- they are not.
So, to anyone else in this awful predicament, with kids involved , NEVER take what SS tell you at face value- they all have their own agenda, just like the cops and cPS- all of 'em
However, I just thought I'd comment about what has happened to our little family post release.
OH was released a year ago now, and we were hoping to have established some supervised contact so my grandson could see his "dad" but no chance- the situation has gone from bad to worse, with my grandson saying he wished his dad was dtill in prison as at least he saw him once a month.
When we lived ib Scotland, we were very much overseen by the Children's Panel and had continual SS involvement as we were classed as "Kinship Carers". After our arrests I moved back to England aaand SS continued to be inolved, the SW even visiting school to speak to my grandson. He is 13 1/2 and has always stated he wants his family to be back together and he knows his dad is innocent but of courseSS see this as him having been "groomed".
Moving on- OH was released with basic license conditions from Scottish Courts, stating that he was to have no unsupervised contact with under 17s unless approved by his SUPERVISING OFFICER, no mention of SS.
At a meeting just before christmas, OH's probation officer advised OH to take a letter and card so she could approve it to send to my grandson. She also requested my grandson to be present as she had been lead to believe this was a meeting to establish a contact visit and she wanted to make sure grandson's views were heard.
Back-tracking to September of last year- SS arrived at our house with her new manager. Oh dear, what a vile , nasty individual!! Our SS is a young woman straight out of college and is actually quite pleasant and reasonable but this one? Oh Lordy!!
She marched in the house, plonked her extremely large backside on my settee , looked down her nose at me and said there was to be no contact, that was her decision.In the meantime, young ss is talking to my grandson saying they are looking at someone to supervise!! Talk about mixed messages!
Anyway, long story short, she was reprimanded for her approach and ss interviewed my older sister and said it was fine for her to supervise: she had been approved before whilst OH was on bail.
A few days later , I got a call saying that the manger had told SS that no family members could supervise and the information had come from PO. I duly rang PO and asked whether this was true and she basically accused me of lying as she had not said that to SS, what she had said was she had concerns about family members supervising. So I went back to SS and asked for a meeting which happened in december.
After the introductions, manager simply said my sister had been interviewed and wasn't suitable as she had contradicted all her answers, therefore no contact until grandson is 18. Well, I absolutely flipped!! She sat there with her "I won" condescending face and from then on it was an hour of arguing and insults.
I posted up what had happened on the FB forum and RF suggested a family lawyer I should contact. By this time , offices were closed for the festives but on return I sent a rather long email explaining the situation.
The solicitor rang a few days later and asked what "Orders"SS had put in place. I had ascertained just the day before that the Supervision order had been abandoned in 2015 and there was nothing in place except a Child in Need plan. The solicitor said in that case, SS have no jurisdiction over contact and he is prepared to take on our case . Hope fully we can have some kind of family life in the not to distant future,
What I'm trying to get across by writing this, is that we never questioned authority, we've never had to. As part of an older generation, we just assumed that those in authority were right and trustworthy- they are not.
So, to anyone else in this awful predicament, with kids involved , NEVER take what SS tell you at face value- they all have their own agenda, just like the cops and cPS- all of 'em
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