September 28, 2013 / Sabine Kurjo McNeill

Empty Pushchair Horrors on Empowerment Monday: 30 September 2013

Children, Empowerment Mondays, Foster care, Harriet Harman, London, Member of Parliament, Royal Courts of Justice, Scotland Yard

‘Empty Pushchair Horror’ on ‘Empowerment Monday’: 30 September 2013

Public Attention for Secret Family Courts and Institutionalised Injustice

Empowerment Mondays [1] were created by Fiona James [2] of the Free Spirit Foundation [3] and Caul Grant [4], founder of the Campaign for Truth and Justice [5]. They were launched on 16 Sept 2013, the day of the inquest into the death of Mark Duggan [6] who was shot and killed by Tottenham Police on 4 Aug 2011.

Empowerment Mondays take place from 10am to 4pm outside the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand in London. The organisers considered the first event a success, after 50 bus lines were effected and traffic had been brought to a standstill by going slowly on the zebra crossing. Subsequently Scotland Yard invited them to facilitate their lawful protest.

With Empty Pushchair Horror [7], this Monday will bring together many parents and grandparents who have lost their children due to the secrecy of family courts [8]. They sanction when Social Services take children from their birth parents and hand them to foster parents for £400 / week. Unique to the UK [9], children can even get adopted against the parents’ will. In over 800 cases a year, parents get criminalised and falsely imprisoned, as admitted by Harriet Harman MP in 2006 [10]. The number of children in care keeps rising, as local authorities are incentivised by rewards and adoption targets [11].

Empty Pushchair Horror [12] will take place not only in London, but also Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Bolton, Blackburn, Grantham, Teeside, Wakefield and Belfast.

Halting traffic is considered a minor inconvenience compared with the major injustices that victims of white collar crimes [13] have to endure. Mr Grant’s personal experience includes the death of his 14 months old son due to medical and administrative neglect. Its cover-up was orchestrated by a major law firm as well as two judges who had a conflict of interest as brothers. To get a fair trial and justice caused Mr Grant to commit a crime for which he was imprisoned for over six years. Compared with similar crimes, the sentence was unproportionate. A 12-year travel ban was also ‘over the top’, especially when he was not even allowed to go to his father’s funeral.

Mr Grant had used his time in prison to study the law and has thus been able to defend himself as a Litigant in Person. His eloquence has served him well in many court hearings, but he has yet to receive adequate recognition, let alone compensation for the loss of his child and the subsequent break-up of his marriage, besides what he knows are criminal acts committed by solicitors and judges.

Meanwhile he has discovered that he is far from alone. Many of the parents who have nothing left but empty pushchairs demonstrated outside Downing Street from 16 July to 26 July 2013 and handed signatures in with the cover letter Dear Mr Cameron, Take the Lead and Return our Stolen Children [14].

To attract Parliament’s attention to the plight of parents all over the country, the Association of McKenzie Friends [15] submitted a petition to the House of Commons, advised by John Hemming MP and published in Hansard on 3 September 2013: Children Placed in Foster Care [16].

Just as Christopher Booker who writes regularly in The Telegraph, John Hemming MP has consistently addressed the issue, especially as Chairman of the Justice for Families Campaign [17]. On Channel IV news [18] he speaks about the necessity to stop cover-ups.

McKenzie Friends have identified Child Snatching as one of Seven Deadly Syndromes and Seven Media Cover-Ups [19]. It therefore welcomes Sir Judge Munby’s judgement re Baby J [20] which “appeals to the courts to adapt to the realities of the internet and especially social media.”

The veteran expert is Ian Josephs [21] a former councillor of Kent with a law degree from Oxford. He runs a successful language school in Monaco, where he publishes Forced Adoption [22] and advises on average 6 – 10 cases a day.

McKenzie Friends have also lodged a petition with the EU Parliament to Abolish Adoptions without Parental Consent [23]. A Dossier of online Evidence [24] comprises currently 9 pages.

It is hoped that empty pushchairs will cause not only the mainstream media but also the judiciary and Parliament to listen to the children, parents and grandparents who are screaming to be heard: