Trust your 14 year old child? Watch out...

The latest installment in an occasional series, "Stories you Wished Weren' t True but Predictably and Woefully Are": over at The Daily Express Vanessa Feltz writes:

WHAT’S that weird noise? It’s the sound of jaws dropping nationwide as we attempt to digest the news that a married mother in her 40s has been suspended from work because she now has a criminal record after being cautioned by police for leaving her 14-year-old son in charge of his three-year-old brother while she nipped to the shops for 30 minutes. No disaster occurred. Yet the woman’s valuable work as a healthcare assistant is indefinitely in abeyance and the rest of us are sitting slumped in stupefied shock.

Read the whole thing, but let's try to do the Naming and the Shaming... BBW will be looking into which Constabulary thought it proper to prosecute this absurdity, and would love to hear from you if you know...

By Alex Deane

Comments

[Dick Puddlecote]

Looks like it was Thames Valley Police according to this article.

[Dick Puddlecote]

Oops, keep forgetting HTML doesn't work here.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/227553/Police-caution-mum-for-leaving-son-14-to-mind-three-year-old-brother

[Clarissa]

There was something in the Telegraph about a week ago on the same subject.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8290307/Thousands-could-sue-Government-over-unlawful-child-protection-sackings.html

I heard mention of the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act the other day but haven't had a chance to follow up on that as yet.

[Richard Craven]

Dear Police

My teenage children frequently babysit, and I intend that they continue to do so. I defy you to do your worst.

[Distrusting]

What is extremely worrying here, is that the authorities appear to have prosecuted this poor woman in the absence of any law being broken.
There is no minimum age for the child being left, nor is there one for the supervising child, yet as we have seen too many times recently, the police appear to be (literally) a law unto themselves.
Having some experience of Police underhand tactics, I can't help wonder if the woman was "persuaded" to take a caution, rather than face a magistrate.
It would be very sad if that was her only mistake, as it is difficult to see a JP doing anything but throwing this out of court in the absence of any harm coming to the 3 year old.

[Dick Puddlecote]

Ditto Richard Craven

[Richard Craven]

@D.Puddlecote

Reckon we should all write to our local constabularies and confess to this heinous crime?

[WicksieSnr]

Now in my 70's, but as a 12 yr old child both my parents worked weekends, particularly saturdays and I used to babysit my 5 yr old sister all day, prepare her food and do all that was necessary. there was never any problem. It was all part of family life in those days, our parents needed to work to pay for the family. Also, as the report says, we could make fires, every single boy would carry a penknife, you could travel anywhere alone on your bicycle and travel alone by public transport was totally routine. School was somewhere you walked to, alone, you would not be seen dead with an adult, except in the first infants classes.

This society is now in a fairly sorry state, and I dread for the future

[Cazzy Jones]

My take on it is here, following a sadly familiar theme.

http://cazzyjones.blogspot.com/2011/02/babysitters-nannies-and-bullies.html

There's also a parallel here with the recent case of the motorist convicted of obstructing the police for flashing his lights to warn of a speed trap - it was only after the magistrates' findings made it into the wider public eye that it turned out to be the case that no offence had been committed. But where is the redress for the victim here, in the face of the unyielding CRB regime?

[Richard Craven]

I have just emailed my confession to the local police service. I suggest that everyone does the same. It is vital that the police be kept abreast of the full extent of criminality amongst the parenting classes.

[Purlieu]

1. How did the police find out about this crime that lasted 30 minutes
2. She did not have to accept the caution (not many know this though)
3. I used to walk to INFANT school when I was a kid approx 6 yrs old onwards, and that was across a big 'wild' estate (ok that was in the 50's before we got all 'civilised and PC')

[Joseph Young]

Another worrying aspect is the drip-drip nature of this problem. Losing one healthcare assistant is an individual tragedy, but, in the great scheme of things, neither here nor there. To the police officer, it was a crime detected and a successful outcome. I can’t imagine the consequences beyond that even entered his or her head.

I’ve read the figure of 20% of the adults in this country have received at least one conviction or caution. With the over-criminalisation brought about by the previous government and statistics-based policing, there’s been an increasing number of middle-aged ‘first-time offenders.’ That’s only going to increase the percentage of people with a criminal record. Are we heading towards a third of all adults?

Are we going to become even more reliant on immigrants? Not because there is no-one already here willing and able to fill a job vacancy, but because all those that are have been in some way barred. Foreign counter parts may have behaved exactly the same, but have no criminal record, because that behaviour would never result in a criminal record in their home country.

At least these cases are notionally ‘malum in se’
conduct
; genuine cruelty to children is bad, in and of itself. I’m always reminded of headmaster Bob Yeomans and his expired rod licence, whose career was in jeopardy over that ‘malum prohibitum’ offence
. If anyone’s hoping for a Big Society, it first needs to become a less-officious one.

[Richard Craven]

Dear R Craven

We have noted your comments.

Thank You

Avon and Somerset Police

This is a form filled in on the Internet on: Tuesday, February 08, 2011
17:03

Name:
R.Craven

Address:
Yes, I have an address

E-mail address:
[email protected]

Telephone number:

Message/enquiry:
In view of the recent case of the mother cautioned for allowing her 14
year old son to childmind a younger sibling, I thought I should let you
know that I frequently allow my similarly aged children to childmind
younger children, fully intend to continue in this fashion, and defy you
to do your worst.

[John]

The state really needs to get its act together here. Partly motivated by the Bulger case, the age of criminal responsibility was reduced to 10. If a child of 10 can be held to be responsible for their treatment of a younger child, it surely holds that from the age of 10 upwards, there exists sufficient responsibility to exercise reasonable care for younger children.

[Richard Craven]

@John

Yes, you're quite right.

[SadButMadLad]

@John, 10 yr olds have criminal responsibility but they can't vote. But the ages of what children can do is all very confusing as I mention over at AnnaRaccoon

http://www.annaraccoon.com/reflections/unattended-responsibility/

10 yr olds can handle a gun.
10 yr olds can be charged with a crime.
12 yr olds have to look after disabled parents.
12 yr olds can have babies.
14 yr olds are allowed to baby sit.
16 yr olds are allowed to have sex.
17 yr olds can drive.
18 yr olds can vote.
21 yr olds are given the key to adult hood, but by then they are probably a bit confused.

What the media should be saying is “You can leave your child alone, at any age at which you yourself are comfortable with doing so – based on the child’s age, common sense, responsibility, experience, and the situation”. Instead you have the media saying that parents all over are asking for more guidance and help and advice. In the long run this will lead to fewer parents leaving their kids alone as the whole issue has been muddied by the woman's caution - because other parents will think they will get a criminal record if they leave their kids alone for more than 30 seconds let alone 30 minutes.

[Richard Craven]

Very obviously, parents should be asking for LESS guidance, and ORDERING the police to butt out of that which does not concern them.