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Boy placed in foster care after mum refused to buy him an ice cream

A judge has blasted a social worker and ordered a boy to be returned to his mother, after the child was taken away because the woman refused to buy him an ice cream.

The social worker stated in a 44-page application, the mother was failing to meet the now eight-year-old’s “emotional needs” by not allowing the boy his treat one time, and not giving him the haircut he wanted.

Despite the lengthy witness statement, Justice Mostyn on Wednesday ruled those claims were “utterly insubstantial” and “obviously inconsequential”.

A social worker is criticised after a child is taken away from mother because she refused to give him an ice cream. Source: Getty
A social worker is criticised after a child is taken away from mother because she refused to give him an ice cream. Source: Getty

The case was brought to the Family division of the London High Court after a lower ranking Swansea judge earlier ruled the unnamed boy be placed into foster care.

The woman had continued to visit the boy so her parenting skills could be assessed, according to the Telegraph.

She then applied for her son’s return home, but it was denied by social services so she escalated the matter to the High Court.

Justice Mostyn this week overruled the earlier decision to move the boy into foster care, saying there was no evidence the woman’s parenting had been “deficient” among the social worker’s “swathes of text”.

“This witness statement was very long on rhetoric and generalised criticism but very short indeed on any concrete examples of where and how the mother’s parenting had been deficient,” he told the court.

“Indeed, it was very hard to pin down within the swathes of text what exactly was being said against the mother.

“The mother had not spent sufficient one-to-one time with [the boy] and had failed on one occasion to take him out for an ice cream… This struck me as utterly insubstantial criticism,” he said.

The judge ruled the decision in the woman’s favour, saying the youngster should return to his mother, with his care supervised by social services staff.