Posts Tagged ‘Justice Parker’
Muslim baby adopted because of fear of “honour” killing
A baby born to a Muslim couple having an affair had to be adopted to save it from being murdered by its mother’s family in a so-called honour killing, senior judges have ruled.
The unmarried woman was said to have told the married father of her child that it had died to keep him away, and wore loose clothes and visited a hospital far from her home so relatives would not learn she was pregnant.
The father got hold of the baby girl’s birth certificate and tried to get legal rights to visiting her, even though he had by then had a newborn with his own wife. But a judge ruled that the love child should stay with its adoptive parents, and not meet its father, because of the danger that its mother’s family would kill it, and her, because of the shame of their secret relationship…
“As soon as [the baby] was born, she was relinquished for adoption because [the mother] genuinely feared for [the baby's] safety should [the grandfather] become aware of or be forced to acknowledge her existence.
“[The mother's] evidence, supported as it was by her actions and the evidence of [the father] and an experienced police officer, drove the judge to conclude that refusal of the order would carry with it a significant risk of physical harm. In our judgment this conclusion cannot be criticised.”
The judgement, in which all of the parties are kept anonymous for their safety, tells how the baby’s parents are both Muslims from foreign countries “but their cultures differ”…
The woman later told social services she wanted to have the baby adopted because she was “scared” that her father “would hurt her and the family would reject her”.
After the birth, her mother was quickly discharged from hospital and a year ago her daughter was placed with another Muslim couple…
In July a High Court Family Division judge, Mrs Justice Parker, ruled that the baby would be at “very significant risk” if it were placed with its natural father and his wife, while it might “provoke action to preserve the family’s honour” if the mother’s relatives found out about the child…
The judge concluded that the baby had had a “very unfortunate start in life” and that consideration of its lifelong welfare required its adoption.
Why – oh, why – must a soap opera court trial about adoption and parental rights have to include the likelihood of murder and infanticide. This is not about honour. This is about demented people stuck into a barbaric belief.
Possible in any number of backwards religious sects. None the less barbaric.
