SB ran away from home after his couple left him with a mayonnaise paliza. I was embarrassed for three months. Reported and obtained orders to arrest his attacker. You enter an emergency center then head to a protection floor to begin a recovery process with psychologists and be able to continue your journey with peace of mind. But in July, the General Directorate for the Reception of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) opened a file for preventive incompetence concerning his future child. On October 30, three weeks before the birth, social workers called the headquarters in Barcelona to explain that when she had a baby, she could not stay with him.
The baby was born at the end of November. He didn’t want to give it to her, he couldn’t get milk so he might die later. I could only watch him for two hours a day while he was in the hospital and, since he was released, one hour a week. He is now living temporarily with a family. In the deliberation of preventive impotence, closed on November 27 and which had reached the country, the DGPPIA decided to remove police custody on the basis of four risk indicators. The first is “the psychological state of the mother, who is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.” The second, “sexist violence in the family environment of nasciturus (the future baby) yes, even if paternity is not determined, the question of who the parent could be weighs an arrest warrant for crimes related to violence against women.
The third thread concerns “risky situations” in which SB was invited to approach “on several occasions in the municipality where they were investigated regarding those who were dictated to accommodation orders”, in reference to the couples who denounced them for mistreatment. The woman (the one who is mentioned in this information with initials to preserve her safety) assures that only one of them was visited and that one of them was for a quote from her own Directorate General for Children. On both occasions, she notified the squad leaders and received calls that this periodical was able to hear.
The final risk indicator cited in the report is “the absence of private housing, which currently resides on a protective floor”. SB, who lives in the province of Barcelona, has a permanent job, although he is currently on medical leave for the series of violence he suffered. For his lawyer, the abandonment of the baby “is based on arguments which do not justify neonatal ablation” and believes that the team which made the decision is not based on professional criteria, but on “losses”.
The Social Security Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia, on which the DGPPIA depends, refused to give its version on the reasons to be included in the assessments of the SB risk and its violence hijo machista who does not have her own accommodation, even if it is known that she lives in a protected floor. There is also no argument that separating from the minor is nothing other than being born. They only say that, generally speaking, the process of helplessness and the removal of a minor from their family unit “is not an easy decision and is not random or subjective, it is a collegial decision”. And they ensure that helplessness is only declared in cases where “indicators of lack of protection” are detected in the child’s environment that justify the measure, which “is always the last option”.
“High risk situations”
During the July meeting with the technicians that SB seized and who had access to the country, the social workers took responsibility for what happened and accused them of being involved in “high-risk situations”. “You have experienced at least three relationships in which you suffered mistreatment,” he said. “I want to decide that there is an element of fragility and emotional vulnerability and dependence, of not knowing how to be alone, with people of the same profile.”
SB, 26, was his first daughter at 19. She then suffered violence from her daughter’s priest. Separated, left in police custody and when the young girl was six years old, in September 2024, she denounced another man for gender-based violence, her couple then obtained a redress order. Then you will be admitted to a shelter, a boarding house, outside of Barcelona. Your attacker from the old town found it. There were fiestas del pueblo and SB went out with her daughter to the park. After this situation, I decided that it would be safer for the girl to spend time with her mother, her little mother. But when the attacker reported it to social services, a file was opened for preventive helplessness which resulted in the separation of the young girl. Helplessness is a measure that is adopted when there are serious signs of risk to a minor and it is necessary to act urgently. Although it was determined that he was a protected family, he remains today in a Center Residencial d’Acció Educativa (CRAE), a resource for minors in protected housing. In the report on her second son, it was stated that SB’s mother “maintained a cold and distant attitude towards her daughter and recognized her inability to care for her child.”
After escaping his attacker last May and entering a new protection floor monitored 24 hours a day, SB thought this time everything would be different. Make sure you have completed the rajatabla with the recovery process. But the DGPPIA techniques did not arrive at the meeting which took place three weeks before the baby’s birth. “You planned to be a mother to people who put you in danger,” one of the techniques says. When SB begs him to leave with his baby in the protected house which has since been monitored, the technician responds: “You had your daughter under your wing, you started a relationship with another señor who also mistreated you and left you in trouble (…) You made a mistake”.
The abogada, who is part of a collective called Madrecitas serving women in custody, believes that an unjustified “inspection” was carried out in this case. “SB has things to sort out, nothing to do, but nothing stops her from creating. And in any case, what needs to be learned to take care of her child can be done perfectly by the hands of the center’s educators, without it being necessary to separate them,” comments the literate person, who asks to appear unnamed because she fears reprisals in other cases that she defends.
Do not revictimize
The vice-president of the Catalan Society of Family Lawyers (SCAF), Ramón Quintano, shares the lawyer’s diagnosis and considers that the case is “barbaric”. “I had to help this woman and support her, not revictimize her. She feels guilty and it’s very serious,” he explains. Note that this custody is not exceptional: “Unfortunately, violence is considered a determining factor in the vulnerability of a minor.” For Quintano, the problem is that the DGPPIA acts as judge and leaves because its teams are always open to a file, studying it and deciding whether to proceed with the release from custody and until later, or even if it results in an adoption. “The way the system is organized is terrible, and when you file an appeal it is always rejected,” says Quintano, who is also an active member of the Asociación Española de Abogados de Familia (AEAFA).
The Catalan family law firm questioned its 500 partners in June about the impotence system. 98% believe that custody withdrawals should be supported by a judicial resolution and 76% say they have seen cases in which the withdrawal was carried out “without sufficient legal guarantees and without clear information for the families”.
The Generalitat government reestablished its childcare service in May after several scandals that placed it at the center of the media storm. First, irregularities in the procurement of services that detected the Sindicatura de Cuentas were detected; Then, an investigation into the misappropriation of funds in favor of young ex-guardians who run the Anti-Fraud Office. But what stopped the ship was the judicial investigation which revealed that a minor protected by the institution had been captured by a child abuse ring without which Nadie had lost nothing for years.
“She reported it to be protected, but the institutions did not respond,” summarizes the lawyer in this file. SB matches. “The worst thing he did in this life was to denounce. I would rather take this person hostage with the one who left my daughter and now my son. Let alone these coups, when they happen, the state will not do it.”
Throughout the year, 46 women have been murdered by their couples or exparejas. Since official statistics were launched in 2003, there have been 1,341 women.
The 016 telephone number answers victims of gender-based violence, their families and those around them 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in 53 different languages. The number is not listed on the phone bill, but the call on the device should be deleted. You can also contact us by email 016-online@igualdad.gob.es and by WhatsApp at the number 600 000 016. Minors can contact Fundación ANAR at the telephone number 900 20 20 10. If it is an emergency situation, you can call 112 or the telephone numbers of the National Police (091) and the Civil Guard (062). And if you can’t call, you can use the ALERTCOPS application, from which an alert signal is sent to the Police with geolocation.
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