About time for a few more tales from the Courtroom. This time it was slightly embarrassing for me and a time when I had a few questions to answer….
To set the scene, this was in about 1996. I had recently taken up a new post in Stevenage, Hertfordshire and I was going along to the Magistrates Court most days of the week.
In those days we also provided a Bail Information Service. This is where I, or a colleague, would phone the Police station very early in the morning (about 6am) to see if there was anyone in custody and who was likely to be remanded in custody following their appearance in Court later that day.
This particular day a woman was in custody having been arrested. I think she had failed to appear in Court sometime before on a motoring offence; perhaps not a very serious matter on its own but it could easily escalate. She had been arrested for failing to appear in Court sometime previously, held in the Police station cells and was going to be put before the Court later that day. It was possible the CPS would argue she should be remanded in custody (sent to prison prior to her sentencing) and, as a Service, we always advised this should be avoided wherever possible.
My role was to establish any viable alternatives to her imprisonment. When I interviewed her, she said she was a single parent with her children attending a local school. That on its own suggested a settled lifestyle with strong family ties, plus she had a part time job, another reason why the Court could safely consider granting bail.
As a precaution I telephoned Social Services to alert them to the possibility she may remain in custody and her children may need their care, I would advise them of the outcome once she had been dealt with. This was a brief conversation with someone saying a message would be passed to the Duty Officer later in the morning.
Unfortunately the Court was busy that day and her case was dealt with last of all. Based on my information the Court decided to grant her bail and she could be released and therefore she could collect her children from school as normal.
This is where things got a bit awkward for me. I then called Social Services to say there was no need for them to take the children into care. Too late, a Social Worker was already at the school and taking the children into care, heading off to some emergency foster parents.
I reassured them this was unnecessary as the mother was on her way and they could possibly wait until she got there. Turns out my message had been passed between a few people and had changed from “possibly heading for prison” to “will be in prison and her children need to be taken into care”.
When I got back to the Probation office, I got called into to see my manager, the Senior Probation Officer who wanted to know what on earth was going on. He said Social Services had been on the phone complaining I had sent them on a wild goose chase and getting foster parents lined up and so on. Once I explained my side of the story, it seemed fine.
In the end I think Social Services might have realised they had over reacted and they should really have been on ‘stand by’ instead of swinging fully into action; perhaps a case of Chinese whispers.
Phew. Another case of “be careful with what you say!”.