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	<span style="color:#000000;">Concerns about &quot;risks to mother and child&quot; led a health trust to apply for permission to deliver an unborn child by Caesarean section, a local authority said today.</span></h2>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Essex County Council social services gave its side of the story for the first time after reports that the child was &quot;forcibly removed&quot; from a mentally-ill Italian woman made headlines.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Lawyers for the health trust obtained a High Court order that allowed the woman to be forcibly sedated and her child to be taken from her womb, according to the Sunday Telegraph.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">The baby girl, now 15-months old, is still in the care of social services, which is refusing to give her back to the mother, even though she claims to have made a full recovery.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">In February, the mother, who had gone back to Italy, returned to&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1em;">Brita</span><span style="font-size: 1em;">in</span>&nbsp;to request the return of her daughter, but a judge ruled that the child should be placed for adoption because of the risk that the woman might suffer a relapse.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">The council said in a statement: &quot;The long-term safety and wellbeing of children is always Essex County Council&#39;s priority. Adoption is never considered until we have exhausted all other options and is never pursued lightly.&quot;</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">The health trust had been looking after the mother since June 13 2012 under the mental health act. Because of its concerns it contacted Essex social services. Five weeks later it was the trust&#39;s clinical decision to apply to the High Court for permission to deliver the unborn child by Caesarean section &quot;because of concerns about risk to mother and child&quot;, the council said.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Newspapers reported the woman came to Britain to attend a training course with an airline at Stansted Airport in Essex.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">She had a panic attack, which her relations believe was due to her failure to take regular medication for an existing bipolar condition.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">She was taken to a psychiatric facility and was restrained and sectioned.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">The county council said the mother was able to see her daughter on the day of birth and the following day.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Social services obtained an interim care order from the county court in August 2012 &quot;because the mother was too unwell to care for her child&quot;.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">The mother had taken part in further care proceedings that ended in February this year with the ruling that the girl should be placed for adoption.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">The mother applied to the Italian courts for the return of her child in May, but the Italian judiciary ruled she should remain in England.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&nbsp;County court permission to place her for adoption was obtained in October, said the council.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;Historically, the mother has two other children which she is unable to care for due to orders made by the Italian authorities.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;In accordance with Essex County Council&#39;s Social Services practice social workers liaised extensively with the extended family before and after the birth of the baby, to establish if anyone could care for the child.&quot;</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Liberal Democrat MP&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1em;">John He</span><span style="font-size: 1em;">mming</span>&nbsp;has taken up the mother&#39;s case and said today that members of his team &quot;have been contacting the Italian embassy to find out what their position is on this issue&quot;.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Mr Hemming said he intended to raise the case in Parliament and had contacted the mother this morning.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">A spokesman for the Judiciary said later Sir James Munby, the President of the Family Division, has ordered the case transferred to the High Court.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">The spokesman said: &quot;The proceedings are not yet concluded. The President has ordered that the matter be transferred to the High Court and any further applications in respect of the child are to be heard by him.&quot;</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Mr Hemming said: &quot;I welcome the transfer of the case from Chelmsford County Court to the High Court in front of the president of the family division.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;The appointment of the president of the family division was a very positive step and I am certain that any applications to him will be heard justly.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;I remain concerned that many decisions taken by the family courts are taken by the magistrates&#39; court (the family proceedings court) and are then appealed to the county court.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;This means that domestic proceedings can be exhausted without a case getting out of the area in which it is considered.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;This means that there is never any public judgment and the case in the UK has come to an end. All that people can then do is to take their case to&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1em;">Stra</span><span style="font-size: 1em;">sbourg</span>.&quot;</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">He also criticised Essex council for failing &quot;to follow proper proceedings&quot;.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">He said: &quot;The rules are straightforward when it comes to foreign nationals and care proceedings.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;The foreign country concerned should be contacted through their central authority (in Italy&#39;s case part of the Justice Ministry). This clearly did not happen and for this Essex County Council are clearly in the wrong.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;Essex have not managed to explain why no-one in the wider extended family was competent to look after the baby when they were already looking after two of her siblings.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;Additionally Essex have not explained why this baby was in their control to get adopted when the mother always intended to return to Italy.&quot;</span></p>
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			<a href="http://www.independent.ie/world-news/council-claims-concern-over-risk-to-mother-and-child-led-to-forced-caesarean-29802592.html">http://www.independent.ie/world-news/council-claims-concern-over-risk-to-mother-and-child-led-to-forced-caesarean-29802592.html</a></p>
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