Archive for January, 2015

In a decision which emphasised the overriding importance of personal liberty – and the pernicious effects of locking up children – a local authority’s plea that a 14-year-old sex trafficking victim should be confined to a secure home for her own good has been rejected by the High Court. The girl had been brought to the UK against her will and groomed by criminals for sexual exploitation. She had twice put herself in peril by absconding from her foster home to visit predatory men, once by climbing down a drainpipe. The council argued that she should be held in secure conditions for her own protection. In dismissing the application, however, the Court stressed that children should only be deprived of their liberty in the most extreme circumstances. The judge said, “Locking a child up is corrosive of a young person’s spirit. ... Read more