Vicky Haigh fled to Ireland to escape her council's social workers, but they haven't given up, reports Christopher Booker.
7:00PM BST 25 Jun 2011
Last week, a Doncaster district judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Vicky Haigh, the former jockey and racehorse trainer who recently fled to Ireland to prevent Nottinghamshire social services seizing her expected baby. As I reported at the time, Miss Haigh duly gave birth to baby Sapphire; mother and daughter receive regular visits from England by the baby's father and his three children, for whom she has been a beloved stepmother for six years.
Judge Bennett issued the warrant after Miss Haigh failed to appear before him to answer a charge that she had breached a "non-molestation order" relating to an incident two months ago at a petrol station when, quite unexpectedly, she ran into her daughter by a previous relationship. The child's father reported this to the police, who arrested the already heavily pregnant Miss Haigh, holding her in a police cell on and off for 65 hours, except when she had to be rushed to hospital three times because of pregnancy-related complications. She was then charged with criminal breach of the court order forbidding her to have any contact with her daughter, for which she was summoned to appear in court last week.
Although an Irish doctor wrote to the court to say that she had advised Miss Haigh, who was breast-feeding a five-week-old baby, not to travel to England – as was confimed by Miss Haigh in a phone call to the court – the judge ruled that this was insufficient reason for her not to appear, and ordered her arrest. The following day, after a senior criminal lawyer (and friend of Miss Haigh's), wrote to the judge, he lifted the warrant and adjourned the case until July 6. Because of the controversial background of her case, which I cannot report but about which John Hemming MP has written to South Yorkshire's chief constable and the Director of Public Prosecutions, she plans to ask that it is heard by a Crown Court before a jury.
Meanwhile, Nottinghamshire social services recently wrote to their Irish counterparts, asking for a joint case conference to discuss baby Sapphire's future. The Irish social workers, who know Miss Haigh and the baby well, replied that they could see no need for such a meeting. Nottinghamshire pleaded with them at least to hold a case conference on their own. Again the Irish replied that, since Miss Haigh seemed an excellent mother and the baby was doing fine, they saw no reason to intervene. As Miss Haigh has often commented, "the Irish social workers are lovely people, quite different from any of those I have encountered in England".
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Sharon Bowers fled to Ireland with her daughter she alleged was being abused. The Irish courts and social services found no complaint against Sharon but the Scottish SS was determined to win at all cost. Sharron's daughter was returned to Scotland through the Haigh Convention costing the Scottish tax payer thousands of pounds.
ReplyDeleteSharon has never had a fair hearing and alleges Scottish social workers fitted her up as an unfit mother.