Mother-police caution for leaving 3 yo with his 14yo brother

[joe_90]

A mother has been given an official police caution for leaving her 14-year-old son in charge of his three-year-old brother for 30 minutes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12380329


erm.. what.. that just retarded.

[james_tigerwoods]

What I want to know is who told on her?

And that's bloody ridiculous - I thought this was acceptable as long as the 14 year old can be shown to be responsible?

[Dino D]

There must be more to the story - an incident or something to get someone to call the Police.

I thought the BBC left this style of reporting to the PH Daily.

[TonyHetherington]

Dino D said:

There must be more to the story - an incident or something to get someone to call the Police.

I agree, the act itself of a 14yr old looking after a 3 yr old could be quite ok.

[JagLover]

Dino D said:

There must be more to the story - an incident or something to get someone to call the Police.

I thought the BBC left this style of reporting to the PH Daily.

Similar things have happened before. A nurse for example was cautioned for leaving her eleven year old home alone and prevented from nursing as a result.

If you just assume the authorities have gone insane and details of all family arrangements must be kept from them, that is probably the best way to proceed.

Meanwhile a little toddler can be left to die in the care of a drunk mother known to be consuming multiple bottles of wine each day.

[Cupramax]

BBC said:

The law on this is vague but the police can - and do - use their discretion in judging these cases.

Thats rather contradictory dont you think. They clearly DONT use any discretion whatsover. Whoever dediced it was in the public interest to caution her needs their head testing.

[BluePurpleRed]

I always hear of links to people being preggers at 12/13/14 etc from various Daily Wail links. So from that, some 15 year olds must have their own 3 year olds... How does that work! Will they not be allowed to keep them. ;P

[Derek Smith]

I'd like to see the police response to this. Is this another 'official' caution that turns out to be a comment from the officer attending?

Has 'custody, charge or care' bitten the dust?

If mother went off the Ibiza for 3 weeks I could see the argument, but if it was indeed 30 mins then there is no offence unless the child was incapable of shouldering that responsibility. I've hired a 14-year-old as a babysitter, and for around 5 hours.

So my guess is that there is either more to this story or less to this story. It doesn't stand as it is.

When I was in my force control room I got a call from the press to ask about Hants police cautioning drivers on the Isle of Wight for driving too slowly. The story ran that one old boy was doing about 5 mph (indicated) under the limit and got an 'official' caution. The story went that he liked to drive at the limit but found this meant he got queues of traffic behind him so where there was a straight where passing was possible he dropped his speed a bit to allow cars to overtake.

I was asked Sussex Police's view on the matter. I said that the report must be wrong and that I would check with Hants. I spoke with their Ops 1 who said: Oh, not you as well. Everyone's on my back. The story is all cock. No official caution. All it was was one PC who didn't ask the right questions and had a go at a driver for no reason.

Later that year I read that this cautioning of drivers had become 'official' policy but that too turned out to be rubbish.

[the_lone_wolf]

Derek Smith said:

When I was in my force control room I got a call from the press to ask about Hants police cautioning drivers on the Isle of Wight for driving too slowly. The story ran that one old boy was doing about 5 mph (indicated) under the limit and got an 'official' caution. The story went that he liked to drive at the limit... The story is all cock.

Of course it is, NOBODY on the Island drives anywhere even approaching the speed limit...

If anything it would be good to get a few booked over here for driving at 10mph everywhere, not necessarily booked for any offence, just booked for an eye test, that way the faceless DVLA gets the blame when the license gets revoked...

[Bill]

Cupramax said:

BBC said:

The law on this is vague but the police can - and do - use their discretion in judging these cases.

Thats rather contradictory dont you think. They clearly DONT use any discretion whatsover. Whoever dediced it was in the public interest to caution her needs their head testing.

Unless you know the case in question how can you say whether or not they used discretion?

[Cupramax]

Bill said:

Unless you know the case in question how can you say whether or not they used discretion?

Unless its been reported incorrectly its pretty bloody clear.

[Amateurish]

Don't forget that you have to agree to be given a caution. If an officer wants to cuation you for something ridiculous like this - just don't agree! Then they have to charge you and send the file to the CPS etc if they want to proceed, which they probably won't do for stupid minor stuff like this.

[Bill]

Cupramax said:

Unless its been reported incorrectly its pretty bloody clear.

Well, as the article is from the Beeb, who have got it from the Times, who are using "sources", I'm erring on the side of Chinese whispers.

[rover 623gsi]

the woman in question is a just a lowly healthcare assistant - had she been a GP or a consultant cardiologist she could have gotten away with leaving the three year old to look after himself.

Life's not fair.

[munroman]

Over Christmas, when my 3 adult children were back home for a while, we got talking about what they got up to as kids.

It turned out that once when their mum and I had popped out for shopping - my son would have been 12 or so, so his sisters 10 and 8, little sister had annoyed big siblings.

Their answer - duct tape her to a chair!

(at least they didn't waterboard her!)

Allegedly......

Allegedly I took them hillwalking, on a day after I had worked a nightshift.
Partway up the hill I stopped for a break and fell asleep.

I woke up when they came back from the summit, saying how big the cliffs were on one side!
Character building I called it!

[Mojocvh]

From beeb article, "in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health".

So no discretion required at all. Just rock on up and some more meat to flesh out the months stats with.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Yourchildsheal...

This is nuts, as has been stated earlier, the social services can leave an drunken mother to strap her child into a chair in front of a gas fire for 3 days, but a reliable, mature, adult cannot be allowed to exercise her judgement over her own children.

See how far down the path of National Socialism this country has gone.

Edited by Mojocvh on Tuesday 8th February 12:35

[thinfourth2]

JagLover said:

Similar things have happened before. A nurse for example was cautioned for leaving her eleven year old home alone and prevented from nursing as a result.

If you just assume the authorities have gone insane and details of all family arrangements must be kept from them, that is probably the best way to proceed.

Meanwhile a little toddler can be left to die in the care of a drunk mother known to be consuming multiple bottles of wine each day.

Nurse working now not working

Chav not working

I am sure the state dislikes people who work

[BoRED S2upid]

Official caution FFS find some real crime to deal with.

[poo at Paul's]

BoRED S2upid said:

Official caution FFS find some real crime to deal with.

Not easy since they turned off all the speed cameras!!