Gran, 58, deemed ‘too old’ to adopt
THE grandparents of a three-year- old girl have been blocked from adopting her because they are ‘too old’, it emerged last night.
They had been left in charge of the child after her mother – who has a history of mental health problems – was sectioned.
But the youngster, their only grandchild, was taken away from them and handed to foster parents. The adoption will go ahead on July 31 unless they win the right to appeal.
The grandmother, 58, and grandfather, 70, have even been told by social workers to mark the occasion with a ‘party’ and bring a cake – a suggestion they described as insulting’. If the appeal fails the only contact they will have with their granddaughter is two letters they are allowed to send each year until she is 18.
Their daughter will be allowed to see photos of her once a year but cannot keep copies.
Last night the ‘emotionally traumatised’ grandmother, a shop assistant, said: ‘I don’t feel old at all. I work two days a week. It’s just
‘Emotionally traumatised’
awful they could take her away from us.
‘It is devastating and so silly. Women have children older and older these days anyway.’
The grandfather, a r etired firefighter, described his family’s treatment as ‘wicked’ and said he was amazed it could happen ‘in a civilised society’.
Many women older than 58 have become mothers around the world and Britain’s oldest mother, Sue Tollefsen, gave birth to her only child, Freya, in 2008 when she was 57 years old.
The girl at the centre of the adoption wrangle, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was born to the couple’s daughter, who is now in her thirties and is no longer in a relationship with the girl’s father. The child’s mother was sectioned in January after self-harming.
One week later, a social worker appeared at the grandparents’ home in Shoeburyness, Essex, demanding they hand the child over. They did not see her again until March and even t hen were allowed to see her only once a week.
The grandfather said: ‘A social worker came round saying she’d come to pick up her clothes because they were taking her into foster care. We didn’t know what was going on but they’d applied for a court order with a view to adoption.’
The social worker showed them a form which they have since learned the mother had been persuaded to sign from her specialist mental health hospital bed – with no legal representative present – consent- ing to her daughter being taken into care.
At Chelmsford family court on June 17, a judge ruled adoption should go ahead but the grandparents could not be candidates. They could not argue their case as they could not afford legal representation.