TEST CASE TO CHALLENGE OFFICIAL CRUELTY

SCARCELY a week passes without fresh examples of appalling enforced treatment of young adults with learning disabilities. Yesterday’s Mail on Sunday reported the case of an autistic man, Martin, seized from a farm where he was enjoying work experience and put into a care home two counties away.

His mother, Sinead, told Ian Birrell (who has revealed how hundreds have been torn away from their parents in similar fashion): ‘Our son had been kidnapped by the state and we were powerless to do anything’.

Help may be at hand. Three mothers of young adults with intellectual disabilities have launched a test case legal challenge with the solicitors Irwin Mitchell — which will be heard next Monday by the Vice President of the Court of Protection.

One of the mothers is my wife (our daughter Domenica is a 23-year-old with Down’s Syndrome).

Their purpose is to amend the Code of Practice which governs the courts’ interpretation of the Mental Capacity Act.

It is only in ‘the most difficult cases’ that parents or relatives are granted the status of ‘welfare deputy’ — a status that gives them decision-making authority over the treatment of their children. The mothers’ argument is that the courts should place much greater emphasis on what the young adults’ views and wishes are.

But even if I were not the husband of one of the parties to this crowdfunded case (

www.crowdjustice.com/case/ 3forallstagetwo)

I would be convinced by the moral force of their claim: ‘We love our children and need to continue to take care of them and make decisions about their welfare. We find it unbelievable that now they have become adults we have lost that right.’