Also :Nicky and Mark
Save our Children
THE family snapshots pinned to the walls of baby Brandon Webster's room have
come down and his mother Nicky has double-checked that there will be enough
bottle feed for the short drive.
If she and husband Mark seem anxious, it is little wonder. For they are taking
five-month-old Brandon home tomorrow for the first time - and the journey so far
has been monumental.
They fled Norfolk for Ireland to have Brandon, fearing he would be taken from
them like their other three children after abuse claims. They were then pressed
to return to England and since June he has being raised in a Big Brother-style
assessment centre, in his 'best interests' represented by a dizzying array of
officials. Nicky, 26, and Mark, 33, have been allowed to stay with him but are
watched 24 hours a day. The couple, from Cromer, have existed in limbo, caring
for their child in such extraordinary circumstances that any hope of normality
must be distant. In his short life, Brandon has been at the centre of a battle
about which he may never fully know. He has dual nationality, was born in the
glare of media interest and plunged just as quickly under the cloak of a Press
blackout.
Then on Thursday Brandon became the catalyst for a landmark legal case brought
by The Mail on Sunday and BBC that resulted in the media being allowed
unprecedented access to Family Court proceedings and the freedom for the first
time to name, and write about, a family involved. Next day Nicky and Mark won
their court battle to take Brandon home.
Speaking exclusively, Nicky said: 'If The Mail on Sunday hadn't fought to be in
court on Friday, I don't believe we would be taking this next step towards
caring for Brandon at home. We would have come back from Ireland, he would have
been taken and we would have lost him forever. 'It's thanks to the Press that we
have been allowed to demonstrate that we can care for our child and have a good
bond with him and we are going to take the next step towards being the "normal"
family that we still are somewhere in all this.'
The couple will be subject to unannounced spot-checks and social workers, care
supporters and other professionals will visit daily. But it is a step forward
they would once not have believed possible.
The Mail on Sunday learned of their plight six months ago. Under Nicky's maiden
name of Hardingham, they told how an unexplained fracture in one infant son's
leg sparked social service interventions that led to the loss of their three
children, all under five, in October 2003. The children were adopted this year
and are lost to them forever.
After they fled to Ireland to have Brandon, Norfolk County Council put them
under pressure to return to England - and the assessment centre. As soon as they
touched British soil, a Press gagging order was set in place.
Brandon brought the sunshine with him
Lifting that order on Thursday, Mr Justice Munby said of the precedent he was
setting: 'We cannot afford to proceed on the blinkered assumption that there
have been no miscarriages of justice in the family justice system. This is
something that as to be addressed with honesty and candour if the family justice
system is not to suffer further loss of public confidence. Open and public
debate in the media is vital.'
He added: 'The permanent loss of their three children must have been devastating
for both parents. Even those of us who spend our professional lives in the
family courts can have but a dim awareness of what the parents must have gone
through and must still be going through.'
Speaking yesterday Nicky said: 'It has been so difficult because we haven't been
able to speak up to say what we've been going through. Our priority has always
been Brandon and for his sake we have submitted to -every requirement social
services placed on us. But it has been hard to feel that we just disappeared and
hard to live with the fear that Brandon would be taken away at any time.'
Fork-lift truck driver Mark added: 'I remember the trip back on the ferry so
vividly. It was the most beautiful sunny day in Ireland when we left. Halfway
across the sea it started to rain in Ireland. When we got to the other end, it
was sunny in Britain. It was like Brandon had brought the sunshine with him.'
Nicky added: 'At first it was very difficult to adjust to life in the assessment
centre. Neither Mark, nor I, nor our families felt we could trust anyone
official. We'd lost so much before, why should this time be different?'
Due to reporting restrictions still in place, The Mail on Sunday cannot identify
the centre. It is a forbidding structure, reminiscent of a young offenders'
institute, where families are housed in identical units comprising kitchen,
living room, bedroom and bathroom.
There are CCTVs and a sound system finely tuned to catch every childish whimper
or snatched conversation.
'The sound system "roams" the units in seven-second sweeps,' said Nicky. 'If
there is a baby crying or a bang or shout it will zoom in on it and stay at the
source of the noise. It's a very strange thing to live with.
'When you arrive you're given the rules - there are no microwaves, no child is
to be left unattended at all or with anyone else and visits have to be between
one and four in the afternoon on weekends only.
'What made Mark and I smile was that the first thing that happened to us was the
other residents thanking us because the whole place had been redecorated before
we arrived and all the flats had got new fridge-freezers. Everyone seemed to
think it was because we had been in the papers.'
Life at the centre was governed by a new lexicon of social-care jargon.
Changing Brandon's nappy, making up a bottle of feed to supplement Nicky's
breast milk and bathing the baby were all 'child-care tasks' and, for the first
month or so at the centre, Nicky and Mark had to notify a member before doing
any such ‘task’ They would be watched until it was completed. . Each day Nicky
and Mark also attended 'group sessions' where they and the other residents would
be 'taught' how to be good parents.
I was scared if I left him, he'd be gone
Nicky said: 'The first time they said, “Right leave Brandon in the crèche and
come to the session," I refused. I was so scared that if I left him there, he
would be gone when I came back.
Many of the other residents were 'struggling with addictions to alcohol or
drugs. Some had themselves been abused, while others acknowledged cruelty to
their children.
For Nicky and Mark, the sessions were doubly difficult because of the isolation
their sense of innocence brought. Nicky said: 'We would both do anything we were
asked to do. But you don't want to know what other people have done or are going
through. You can't let it impact on your assessment.'
There was no smoking and Nicky and Mark could leave the centre with Brandon for
four unsupervised hours a day if they notified staff.
'For me it wasn't so bad,' said Mark. 'After the first three children were born
I went back to work within a couple of weeks so I wasn't there to bathe them or
change nappies. I'd never bathed a baby, so I learned a lot and bonded with
Brandon massively as a result. But it was difficult for Nicky. She'd done this
for three children. She knew what she was doing and suddenly she was being
tested on it all.'
Nicky said: 'After the first few weeks the supervision was pulled back a bit
which allowed us a bit more normality. Once a fortnight we had a review where
the staff would raise any concerns and give us a chance to respond. We were very
fortunate because we had very few concerns raised. We were determined to go
along with everything they wanted. Every group session scheduled was attended,
every child-care task done.
There were daily spot-checks and you just had to get on with that. ‘The couple's
return to Britain had been made on the understanding that their stay in the
centre would last 12 weeks. But, three months in, they were told that an
extension was required while authorities awaited the results of a psychologist's
report. Nicky said: 'Mark had been given time off work for the 12 weeks 'unpaid
leave. But he couldn't take any longer. So he had to leave. That was very
difficult. He would work Monday to Friday, drive to be with me and Brandon on
Friday evening and leave again on the Sunday.'
They kept on saying we were in denial
Mark struggled to control his emotions as he added: 'That was the most
disheartening bit. I had had this bond with Brandon and I was there all the time
- and then I had to leave him and Nicky. She was at the centre, alone, and I was
back home.
'It affected my relationship with Brandon and that was very hard, very painful.
I just tried to make the most of the time we had together.'
Each night, after Brandon was bathed and in bed, Nicky and Mark would talk on
the phone, stranded and trying desperately to maintain faith in each other and
in the system that had, it seemed, let them down so catastrophically before.
For Nicky, the most painful aspect of this weekly isolation was when she
witnessed other family's struggles come to an end with the removal of their
child into care. She said: 'You are told when you go in not to get too close to
anybody and you can't-but it's difficult. You see a family watch as their child
is taken away and it takes you back. 'It took us both back to the day we lost
our children. It's like watching yourself all over again.
'We don't know what the situations were for these other families but it's hard.
And it's hard because you know that that situation inspires you to be selfish.
'All that matters is how your assessment is going, you're there to protect your
child and your own family and you can't get involved in anyone else's because
you don't want to jeopardise your own situation. It's horrible, really
horrible.'
The psychologist's and psychiatrist's reports came back favourably for Nicky and
Mark. Both admit that the only area with which they continually struggled was
the 'relationship' aspect of their 'rehabilitation' as parents.
We were watched round the clock and even had to ask permission
to change Brandon's nappy
Mark said: 'The relationship wasn't between me and Nicky or even us and Brandon
it was to do with the other children and the fact that, as long as we denied any
wrong-doing, they persisted in saying we were "in denial" and couldn't be
rehabilitated. Well, I'm never going to say I abused my children when I didn't.'
Nicky added angrily: 'I was told by a member of staff that I couldn't tell
Brandon when he's older that his siblings had been taken as a miscarriage of
justice because that would be emotionally damaging for him. I asked what I
should say instead, that we were child abusers?'
On Friday they were granted leave to recruit another paediatric expert to review
the cases of their first three children.
Nicky and Mark have always pointed to her family's history of brittle bones -
though it has been ruled out that she is a carrier and their second child's Soya
milk diet due to lactose intolerance as possible factors in his fractures.
Nicky said: 'At one of our reviews at the assessment centre they presented a
chronology of the original cases and one entry said that our daughter had
identified a person as having hurt her brother. 'Well, that was the first time
we'd ever heard about that. It said that Norfolk County Council called a
strategy meeting as a result. We asked to see the minutes and we still haven't
seen them.'
Nicky's eyes burned as she related what was to her and Mark a shocking and
belated discovery. 'What their detractors may seek to pooh-pooh as raking over
ancient history is as pertinent and crucial a point as ever. They lost three
children because of it and, in spite of Friday's interim care order; they may
yet lose Brandon. After the removal of the gagging order Norfolk County Council
lost no time in issuing its 'position statement', a reiteration of the
accusations that the couple has always denied vehemently.
The statement claimed that Nicky and Mark had caused 'significant harm' to their
two eldest children (known only as A and B) and that their youngest child C was
at 'risk of significant harm’. It noted that child B had suffered six rib
fractures and other fractures caused by 'forceful twisting'. Part of the
Webster’s' rebuttal centres on the assertion that these particular kind of
fractures can be caused only by twisting.
We've fought this in secret for so long
Nicky said: 'We wanted this to be fought in the open and that means we will be
accused all over again. But this is what we have been fighting in secret for so
long. We just have to keep going and take what they throw at us and gather our
evidence. The reality is that, hand on heart, I did nothing different with
Bran-don in that assessment centre than I did with any of my other children. .
'We were shown to be capable, loving and sane parents and the only difference
this time round is that we were watched and monitored and people listened in to
it all. But even though we're taking Brandon home now, it's far from over.'
In court on Friday, Mr Justice Munby was at pains to point out that the decision
to allow Brandon home was subject to a care plan to be worked out between the
county council and the parents. He said: 'If the process goes as everyone hopes
and progresses positively and there are no problems, it may be that it is
possible for Brandon to live at home permanently with his parents. I stress it
may be.' The emphasis could hardly be lost on Nicky and Mark as they sat feet
away.
For now there is a brief, bright interlude in this tale of a family interrupted.
Brandon will come home to what remains of his loving family. Mark has
redecorated every room except one, that of their little girl.
That is the same as the day she last spent there. Pink and cluttered with toys,
it is a bitter-sweet shrine to Nicky and Mark's loss. The boys' room has had a
lick of paint,' said Mark, 'but it's still blue.' For the time being, Brandon's
cot will be placed by his parents' bed. No doubt they will watch him as he
sleeps, not quite daring to believe he will still be there if they nod off.
'It isn't over," said Nicky. The final decision will be made next June and it is
hard to have any confidence or faith after what we have been through - but we
have got to keep going. We have been put under a microscope by social services.
Fine, we've agreed to that. And if it means we can keep Brandon, anything is
worth it.'
The Mail on Sunday November 5, 2006
Nicky and Mark
Save our Children
