Baby-snatch fuels call for review

Published on Friday 16 June 2006 00:09

SHONA Robison, the SNP's health spokeswoman, last night called for an urgent external review into the case of Corellie Bonhomme, whose newborn baby was removed by social workers minutes after the umbilical cord was cut.

In The Scotsman yesterday, Ms Bonhomme, 34, from Dumfries, told how social workers had entered the labour room to seize her baby while she was giving birth in order to seize her baby.

She was reunited with her daughter Fifi last month following a five-month legal battle with Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Ms Robison said: "There needs to be an external look into this case to make sure such a thing never happens to a mother and child in Scotland again.

"Such a review should look at working practices in hospitals, health boards and local authorities and any external agencies involved in a particular case.

"We need to establish a framework for good practice which works and is accountable to the public."

Fifi was taken into council care on 15 December last year after social workers in Dumfries received background reports from the London Borough of Camden.

The English legal proceedings were questioned and the original decision to take Fifi into care was overruled by Sheriff Kenneth Ross at Dumfries Sheriff Court.

Meanwhile, Jean Robinson, the honorary research officer for the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services, a maternity care pressure group, said: "The details of what happened to Corellie Bonhomme are appalling and the most serious case we've seen in the UK."