Gagged by the secret courts, spinster aged 94
A FRAIL 94-year- old spinster fighting council social workers for the right to live in her own home without their interference has been banned from talking publicly about her plight.
In what is thought to be an unprecedented move by the secretive Court of Protection, the former NHS midwife – who can be identified only as Miss G – has been told she does not have the mental capacity to communicate with journalists and that it is in her ‘best interests’ not to do so.
The gagging ruling – which could last for the rest of her life – was made yesterday by a High Court judge who sent a message via a clerk to the Daily Mail, which has highlighted Miss G’s case, warning: ‘This means the press cannot speak to Miss G any more.’
The draconian attack on freedom of speech flies in the face of recent demands by the top family court judge, Sir James Munby, for more openness in the shadowy court, allowing those
‘I’m like a fly in a web’
appearing there to speak publicly about their experiences.
The Mail has campaigned against secrecy in the Court of Protection, which takes sweeping decisions on behalf of the old, infirm, and disabled over where they live, with whom, and even whether their life-support machine should be switched off in the event of severe illness or if they should be allowed or forced to take contraception.
Miss G has fought a six-month battle with social workers in Redbridge, north east London, who say a couple who live with her at her £350,000 house are controlling her life and decision-making.
The council hopes to send in its own carers, with Miss G footing the bill. They have argued that the couple, known as Mrs C and Mr F and from the same Caribbean island as Miss G, should be thrown out of the house.
Miss G has already been told by the Court of Protection that she does not have the mental capacity to make decisions about her care, financial affairs, legal representation, or where she lives.
The gagging order was made by the judge granting a special ‘declaration’ that she should not ‘communicate with the Press’. Miss G and the couple who care for her face a prison sentence or stiff financial penalty if she does so.
Earlier this year, Miss G signed a petition in Parliament highlighting her plight and staged a public protest in her home borough. At one court hearing, she handed a letter to judges saying she wanted to use her own name when she spoke to the Press.
In previous interviews with the Mail, Miss G described her experience as ‘being like a fly in a web, with me being the fly and the social workers the spiders’. She said: ‘I do not want the council people in my life. In the past, when they provided carers from an agency, they did not look after me. I was left in a dirty house alone for hours at a time when they cut short their twice-a-day-visits.
‘They did not shower me often enough and there were foxes in the garden and insects in my bed.’
Miss G said it was only when she cancelled her council care plan that ‘Redbridge began to persecute me and the private carers I chose, who look after me so well’.
In court yesterday, she told the judge: ‘They [the social workers] think I am a stupid old woman but I am not. They have made false accusations and think they can do what they like. I want them out of my life and to live in peace.’
The court also heard that an independent social worker’s report has recommended that Mrs C and Mr F should be allowed to stay and that Miss G is well looked after by them.
Redbridge has now said it needs time to consider that report before the final long-term plans for Miss G are put in place. During previous hearings, the court was told that social workers, accompanied by police, had turned up at Miss G’s house 12 times in nine months after Mrs C and Mr F moved in.
‘The visits were frightening and it was to try and get rid of this couple who are like my family and look after me perfectly’, Miss G has said.
Redbridge – which the court has allowed to be named following a request from the Mail – refuses to comment on details of the case.
However, Lib Dem MP John Hemming, who campaigns for Court of Protection openness, said last night: ‘This gag appears to be totally unprecedented.
‘It is difficult to see who it is protecting if not the local council social workers from public criticism. It is certainly not Miss G who is protected.
‘The worry is other social workers may now use the same tactics to stop press scrutiny of their actions and that cannot be right.’