DISGRACEFUL

I saw this story in the newspaper before i went into lectures today. I was so angry i could not concentrate throughout the whole lecture.

It is a complete disgrace how something like this can happen, complete failure of the social services.

A family adopted a foster child, an 18yr old boy, to act as a big brother to their 2yr old son and 9yr old daughter.

The social services failed to tell the family that the foster child was a repeat sex offender, with a five year history of sexual offences against youngsters.

The foster child abused the children for several months whilst he was living there, raping the 2yr old boy and sexually assaulting the 9yr old girl.

Some justice is he will serve at least 6 years in jail- but the children will have to deal with this for the rest of their lives. This could have been prevented.
WHY ARE THESE MISTAKES STILL BEING MADE!!!!!

GGGgggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw this in the paper too this morning while on the tube.

And have been feeling shite all day too. Found it very hard to shake the feelings off today.

Guys,

I am in the process of adopting four kids under the age of six.
The older three were in a foster home in L.A. for a couple of monthe before we got custody of them. The two girls were sexually abused by another girl while they were there.
We have chosen to adopt them because without us they would never be able to grow up together and what chance you they have of ever having a normal life. Life inside the foster care system is anything but normal.
It has put alot of pressure on our marrige and lives but both of us are csa survivors. And we are willing to sacfarice to help these children out.
No child should be allowed to grow up in the foster care system.

Mike

You know why this happen? Its BECAUSE Children's Protective Services isn't interested in PROTECTING Children. Its interested in getting paid by the States' who get Federal Monies for every child that is placed in a Foster Home. The more time they can transfert hat child from foster home to foster the more monies that County's Children's Protective Services recieves. Even the Social Worker who places the child gets upwards of a $6,000 bonus!. If the child is adopted the Social Serivces Agency gets paid BIG BUCKS.

Yeah this was definitely preventable and I would think the parents of these two children must feel horribly guilty for what happened. Aside from that, they ought to GO PUBLIC with their situation and EXPOSE the idiotic social workers and CPS agency for not disclosing the whole truth about this abusive child whose got major issues sexually etc.

I see these cases all the time in the newspapers what is put out there, and it is just the tip of the mess. Its insanity, its absurd, its pathetic and it just makes my blood boil to a froth over it all !!.

One last note, the parents ought to SUE THE HECK out of the agency for lack of disclosure etc etc.

I don't know if the "Vale of Glamorgan" is a private organization or some sort of government entity in the UK. In the US, state children's services agencies may get "more money" when they adopt out kids, but it's not the same as, say, Exxon getting more money. As a private company, when Exxon gets more money it can pass it out in the form of executive raises and perks to its employees. A state agency, on the other hand, cannot give itself raises and new vehicles and building renovations - all those things can only be given by the state. So the "more money" the state agency gets can really only be used for operational expenses.

This case took place in the UK; but if the UK is anything like the US, then once a person turns 18, his juvenile criminal record is completely sealed (except for offenses where the child was tried "as an adult") and can never be opened, used, referred to or considered by the government ever again. I don't see why a social services agency would be "adopting out" an 18-year-old in the first place, as 18-year-olds are legal adults here...but if they did, in the US they would most likely be prevented BY LAW from disclosing the person's juvenile criminal history - sexual or otherwise.

And as I understand it, the UK doesn't try children "as adults" for any crime; so if the UK also seals juvenile criminal records, that might be the meat and potatoes of this situation. Even the newspaper article itself says that it's not permitted to give the accused's name. What you have is an agency that through some omission or miscommunication may have thought it wasn't allowed to disclose the perp's childhood history of abusing others. It wouldn't even surprise me if the very social worker who filed the papers was completely unaware of that history.

If all the above speculation is true, then perhaps it's time to re-examine the notion of sealing juvenile criminal records. Perhaps exceptions should be made for sexual offenses...although there you run into the problem of "punishing a kid for life" - a five year history of offenses means this person abused his first victim at the age of thirteen. How many people would want to sentence a thirteen-year-old to an entire lifetime of being labeled a sexual predator? Do we know for certain that by doing so we could prevent a situation like this one? If we don't, you're going to find a lot of resistance. It's a very tough decision to have to make.

Guys,

Maybe more people need to get involve with the children in the foster care system. Instead of just ignoring the problem and expecting others to deal with it.And blaming the government for the way things are now. As I see it this is a social not a governmental problem. So Ideally it should will be resolved by those who can give these children a safe and nuturing home.
If we can help just one child each how much trouble would we save our society in the coming years.
The answer to this problem is in our hands. Not the governments.
So why do we not stand together and address our childrens futures.
I know that my wife and I are.
If we contiue to ignore what is going on our we not also to be blamed.

Mike

With all due respect Mike, how are we supposed to do that when we're one step above working poor, and single?

Not everyone CAN do something about it.

Saw that story when it broke in the Daily Mail UK website, here's the fallout...

Daily Mail UK

This offender is 18, so I'm not interested in understanding his story if he'd been abusing other kids all throughout adolescence. Another one for the register, and here's hoping that indefinite prison sentence is nice and long.

Hi melliferal,

Wales

the vale of glamorgan is just a place, a county in wales (number 8 on that map in the link), where vale means valley: a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river, so it would be a goverment thing, a social services run by the council within the area, it wouldn't be a private social services