Father wins custody of boy, 7, who has been brought up as a girl

SOCIAL workers let a mother raise her young son as a girl because they were in thrall to ‘transgender equality’.

The boy, who wore a pink hairband, dresses and nail varnish, was ‘living entirely as a girl’ and was registered as one with his GP.

But despite the alarm being raised by officials and the boy’s father, council staff failed to intervene. Details of the extraordinary case were disclosed at the Family court yesterday when a judge accused the boy’s social workers of naivety and professional arrogance.

The seven-year-old, who cannot be identified, has been removed from his mother’s care and is living with his father in the north of England. He now regards himself as male and plays with boys’ toys such as Power Rangers.

The judge, Mr Justice Hayden, said: ‘This is not a case about gender dysphoria, it is about a mother who has developed a belief structure which she has imposed upon her child.

‘Had their concerns been given the weight they plainly should have, it is difficult to resist the conclusion the boy could have been spared a great deal of emotional harm.’

He added: ‘The profile and sensitivity of the matters raised by the mother blinded professionals from applying their training, skill and common sense.

‘They failed properly to investigate the mother’s assertions, in part I suspect, because they did not wish to appear to be challenging an emerging orthodoxy in such a high-profile issue.’

Last night, the council, which cannot be named, said an inquiry was under way into its handling of the case.

When an agreement between the parents to care for their son cooperatively broke down in 2013, the father went to court to restore contact with his child.

Social services received warnings over

‘No safeguarding concerns’

the welfare of the child in 2013 and 2014, including a report that the mother was insisting her son was transgender.

Social workers failed to act despite concerns being raised by the school.

In May 2014, the council’s housing department raised the alarm but no further action was taken because there were ‘no safeguarding concerns’. By august the clamour from the boy’s school, the NSPcc, a GP and the housing unit finally forced the council to act. But social workers reported: ‘There was no evident concerns suggesting he was at immediate risk of harm.’

Sitting at the Family Division of the High court, Mr Justice Hayden said: ‘There was no independent or supportive evidence he identified as a girl, indeed there was a body of investigation that suggested the contrary.’

a psychologist told the court the mother was ‘locked into an unshakeable belief structure’ about her son’s gender.