Charlotte Bevan walked out of St Michael’s Hospital in
Bristol with her four-day-old baby on Tuesday night. She was declared
missing. There were appeals from the Police, and her partner, for her to
get in touch. The next day, the bodies of Ms Bevan and her baby were discovered in
the Avon gorge, close to where she lived in Clifton. She had apparently
suffered from depression for some years.
What's so f***ing wrong with kicking the NHS and social workers, c***?!? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay
The tragic sequence of events, although reported faithfully at the time, has now become the basis for the press to begin the blame game. And there is no more adept, ruthless, and utterly unprincipled exponent of this art than the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, who has duly set the Daily Mail on anyone, and everyone, who can be found wanting by application of 20/20 hindsight.
News of Ms Bevan’s death emerged on Thursday; the next day the
why-oh-why began in earnest. “'They
just let her walk straight out': Friends of depressed mother who died with her
baby after fleeing hospital demand to know why staff failed to stop them”
howled the headline, as a succession of groups put forward someone who knew
better than the rotten lefty NHS.
Facebook was trawled More adverse comment was extracted and
duly published. Readers were told that “a
spokesman for the hospital trust that treated Miss Bevan said its patients are
'free to come and go' if they are not subjected to legal restrictions. Its
wards do not monitor CCTV footage or fit newborns with electronic tags”.
And today has
come a ramping up of the campaign.
“The depressed mother
who was found dead this week in the Avon Gorge feared her baby daughter would
be taken away from her, it has been
claimed. Charlotte Bevan, 30, was ‘closely monitored’ during her pregnancy
and had reportedly been referred to
social workers on three occasions in the run-up to her baby Zanni Tiana being
born”. And there was more of the same.
“A
source said it caused the new
mother - who was believed to be suffering from depression, schizophrenia and
severe sleep deprivation when she left the hospital - to develop fears that her
newborn child would be taken into care”. And so the Mail has the narrative on one of its favourite grounds – social worker
bashing. And, don’t forget, the hated BBC did a series on Bristol’s social
workers not long ago.
Do we have a pundit to reinforce the message? You betcha,
says Sarah: the Mail’s Glenda
Emeritus Amanda Platell has
been sent over the top by the Vagina Monologue to tell of “A mother's suicide that shames all of us”.
Why didn’t someone stop her? Why did no-one call the Police? “Everyone who saw her on that last journey
let her down” she rants. As if the Mail gives a damn.
Leaving families to grieve? Not while the Mail has its own twisted agenda to pursue.
4 comments:
As far as I'm aware neither Mr Dacre nor Ms Platell have ever given birth. They have no idea what post natal depression and sleep deprivation after childbirth can do.
Your brain is scrambled - add schizophrenia to this and it's a lethal combination.
Social services involved - wrong!!
Social services not involved - wrong!!
Hospitals interfering in childbirth - wrong!!
Hospitals negligent in childbirth - wrong!!
They can't win.
Making sensational headlines out of this tragedy is a disgrace.
I seem to remember, not so long ago, the NHS being bashed for NOT letting a patient out, and for calling the cops when hs parents removed him from hospital. In the eyes of the Mail they really can't win.
So first the 'authorities' are blamed for not being vigilant enough, then they're blamed for being too vigilant. Mail just hates anyone who works in public sector.
You can imagine the Mails front page if social workers had had the woman securely detained or even taken the baby into care.
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