Former Director of Public Prosecutions Became a Queen's Counsel in 1997. As a junior barrister he had defended terrorist suspects from both the Northern Ireland Troubles and the Middle East. Co-founder of Matrix Chambers with Cherie Blair. Succeeded Sir David Calvert-Smith as DPP in 2003 in a move criticised by the Conservative Opposition as "rampant cronyism." Mr. Macdonald retired as DPP in October 2008.

Sir MacDonald's essay Security & Rights (2007) confirmed for many that the Labour Government saw a clear distinction between the rights afforded to terrorists and those afforded to parents entwined in the secretive family justice system in England and Wales;

So what are the fundamental principles? What is the essence of fairness? I think we need to start with a clear understanding that certain principles are absolutely not negotiable, whatever the pressure. It seems quite appropriate that as head of the prosecuting authority I should state these plainly and clearly, even though they are mainly obvious. First, trials should be routinely open and reported before independent and impartial tribunals. So we can't have secret courts, we can't have vetted judges, and we can't have secret justice.

(Source: CPS News: Security & Rights)

The scandal of Shahnaz Malik and her family's treatment at the hands of both seemingly over-enthusiastic social workers and police officers drew unwelcome attention to the persistent allegations that the term 'emotional abuse' is grossly misused against women. In addition the scandal appeared to reinforce the view that the tendency to over-react and waste valuable resources is a growing problem amongst child protection police departments. The Shahnaz Malik Scandal also highlighted the perceived regularity with which health and child protection officials can accuse a woman of being mentally unfit in the event she dares to questions an action

SOCIAL WORKERS have placed the five-year-old daughter of a professional couple on the child protection register for “emotional abuse” after the mother told the girl she was delivered by caesarean. Other allegations against the mother include cuddling her daughter for too long when dropping her off at nursery. The intervention by Birmingham social services prompted the mother, Shahnaz Malik, to go into hiding with her daughter, Amaani, for two months, fearing the girl would be taken away. An alert was put out to all British ports, and police conducted raids on a string of properties in the West Midlands. Two weeks ago police battered down the door of the family’s home in an apartment block in an attempt to find Amaani. She had been moved elsewhere by her mother, but her father, Vijay Bansal, 42, an IT consultant, was later arrested and held in a cell overnight for “obstructing” the search. Officers also seized Malik’s car, took toothbrushes from the bathroom to analyse for DNA and raided the homes of relatives in the middle of the night, looking for the mother and girl.

Things went awry following a dispute with a nursery;
...

When Malik withdrew Amaani from the nursery, she was told by a health visitor that their case was being referred to social services. “I went to a solicitor, who said the grabbing of Amaani’s arm was an assault, so I decided to make a complaint to the police,” Malik said. However, she felt the police were uninterested in her complaint and wanted to speak to Amaani alone — which Malik refused to allow. A few days later her husband was called in by officers. “The police asked me if my wife has mental health problems. I said, ‘Absolutely not’,” Bansal said. “They said, ‘There are allegations coming from the nursery’. They said, ‘Someone overheard your wife saying to your daughter she had her stomach cut open to deliver Amaani’.” Bansal said the police also told him that his wife cuddled Amaani for 10-15 minutes when dropping her off at the nursery. “I said, ‘No mother wants to leave her child screaming’.

(Source: Mother branded as abuser for telling daughter of caesarean by, The Sunday Times, March 7th 2010 by Daniel Foggo)

Getting bad 'vibes' about the nature of the social workers they were dealing with, the Malik's fled, fearing that their daughter was to be removed by social workers, using spurious arguments. Although no secret court hearing had taken place to test the 'evidence' the police then embarked on their pursuit of the Malik's, seeking the family - though it isn't quite certain what terms of reference they were using for either criminal activity or concerns about child protection.

The Maliks presented themselves to the authorities, whereupon a secret court hearing (to its credit) returned the family home, with no order made.

The term 'Emotional Abuse' has been in use since even before the SRA Myth of the late 1980's. There is no agreed definition of the term, which has a wide-ranging scope, ranging from what most people would recognise as being 'emotional abuse' - deliberately not praising a child, showing no love or affection, creating a household whereby the child feels unwanted or unloved, has extended into areas where it appears that, in the sometimes bizarre world of child protection, perfectly decent behaviour towards children is reclassified as being 'abusive'. This has included feeding a child a healthy diet, hugging a child, praising a child, insisting on a regular bedtime at night, denying a child from owning an Xbox 360, a PSP, and an Nintendo PS3 console, or even refusing the child the demand that he or she see adult-rated DVD's. The entry for Eric Pickles MP details some instances when this sort of 'mirror world' judging of families and women is employed as evidence that a child should be forcibly removed by the State/secret court from its parents or a woman.

The term 'emotional abuse' has extended into the context of adults - notably women. The trend for modern feminism to define women as being 'Perpetual Victims' - constantly out-foxed and cowed by wily males who spend their lives running rings around women or deliberately abusing them, is hugely popular today - typified by The Emotionally Abused Woman : Overcoming Destructive Patterns and Reclaiming Yourself (1992) by Beverly Engel.

In the context of child protection, a number of books, both academic or otherwise, have been written on the subject, such as Emotional Abuse of the Child by Dory Renn (1988). In recent years the reign of what has been termed 'emotional abuse' has been employed to promote other agendas. For instance daughters encouraged to complete their education and go to university by their fathers' are said to have been 'emotionally abused'.

More disturbingly is the use of the term 'emotional abuse' when it is employed with the worlds 'possibility of'. In England and Wales, together with the other popular 'possibility' determinate's - MSBP/FII (see Sir Roy Meadow) and Post Natal Depression (see Rt. Hon. John Hemming MP), 'emotional abuse' has become a primary 'soft' means for children to be forcibly removed in the secret court by the State from families and women.

As emotional abuse encompasses such a wide and recognised variance, it appears difficult to comprehend how a woman can escape the allegation 'might cause emotional abuse in the future' in a secret court. This determination, sometimes referred-to as 'futuristic emotional abuse' is a recent phenomena. It has absolutely no definition, in any book or journal paper - perhaps because no peer committee would be able to easily accept such a concept. Yet it's use in the secret courts of England and Wales is rife - perhaps the ultimate 'fad'.

In its most disreputable form, the forced removal of a child from a woman using the 'possibility of emotional harm' is employed increasingly in cases of domestic violence. For varying reasons the forced removal of children from women who have suffered domestic violence appears to be increasing, confirmed by Eoin Rush, Assistant Director of Children’s Services for the City of York, in 2010;

“We have seen a significant increase in applications to the court for concerns of domestic violence. This is a national trend and is due to rising awareness that the psychological impact on a child of watching one parent assault another parent is almost as damaging as being assaulted.”

(Source: Number of York children in care increases by 42%, by Nicola Fifield, The Press, 2nd March 2010

What are the reasons for this action? Two explanations seem to suffice; both based on dogma. The first explanation is that those influenced by gender politics 'shop' women who seek assistance or flee the family home to seek shelter. In an effort to punish the woman, for engaging in an abusive patriarchal relationship with a male, the child is forcibly removed by social workers.

The second explanation looks to religious fundamentalist discrimination against women, who challenge the concept of the dutiful wife, by challenging her abuse with a police attendance at the family home, or worse (in their eyes) fleeing the family home for a refuge. Once again the woman is punished, through the forced removal of her child.

As detailed in the lengthy entry for Bea Campbell (OBE) it is perfectly conceivable that both disparate groups can collude to achieve their aims - with women with children the victims.

To reflect the popularity of 'emotional abuse' allegations, and although at rather a late stage in its widespread use, to try to get a definition for its use, the Government in England and Wales have commissioned a number of studies into the subject including. Systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions in reducing emotional abuse being conducted by Jane Barlow and Anita Schrader McMillan, Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School, Warwick University

Unfortunately the study will deliberately avoid the contentious element of the use of the emotional abuse allegation, when it is used in its 'futuristic' form, though this is the most popular use of the term.

Interventions with parents who do not actually maltreat children, but who are considered to be ‘at risk’ are excluded

This perhaps is to be excused, as it is probably impossible to define such a vague term, even despite its enormous popularity. It's equivalent in the criminal context would to arrest any woman at any moment in any place on the grounds that she will commit an unspecified offence, at some undetermined point in the future (see the entry on 'future crime' and emotional abuse under the entry for Phillip K. Dick).

Nor will the study, judging by its published terms of reference, investigate the use of the 'emotional abuse' allegation as a means of punishing women who are victims of domestic abuse.

The use of the 'possibility of emotional abuse' as a means to punish victims of domestic abuse is to be studied in more detail in a planned Index entry for 2010.

The Scandal of the Maliks, perhaps the least advisable family for ill-advised pursuit by both police and social workers - Mrs. Malik has a masters degree in social policy and her husband is an IT consultant, also drew attention to the willingness of those abused by the child protection 'industry' to willingly tell their stories to the world. In interview, both to newspapers and on television, the Maliks have proven hugely lucid and professional.

Conceivably the 'dodgy' social workers of Birmingham City Council, and West Yorkshire Police, who wasted resources perhaps better dedicated to terrorist suspects, have become the unintended inspiration for a couple to engage in the debate over errant child protection workers. For certain their compelling story provides evidence of a misuse of power that is difficult for even the most ardent of social services apologists to deny.

The Countess of Mar is a crossbench member of the House of Lords, entering the House in 1975. The Countess has taken an avid interest in the nature of MSBP allegations made against women and in 2004 during a House of Lords debate, she drew attention to the parallels of MSBP usage with witchcraft allegations of centuries past;

'There are many thousands of women who have been accused of, or labelled as having Munchausens Syndrome By Proxy, without clinical or legal assessment. They have no recourse to the courts and, each time they protest, they are told that they are in denial and that it is a sign of having Munchausens Syndrome By Proxy.' This is an equivalent of the stigma of witchcraft in the Middle Ages; there is no trial, and one is guilty until one can prove that one is not guilty, and one has no way in which to prove that one is not guilty.

Former editor of the BBC flagship Radio 4 news program Today Moved to the newly-created post of editor-in-chief of the BBC's new College of Journalism February 2006.

(See also Ceri Thomas, Fran Lyon.)

American-born forensic psychologist. Author of Munchausens Syndrome By Proxy Reconsidered (2002) that examined the use of MSBP and the pitfalls that it's enthusiastic use has for both professionals and parents alike. Prof. Mart concentrated particularly on the tendency of those professionals who employ MSBP allegations against women to neglect proper scientific and forensic analysis in their investigations and conclusions.

(blurb) While a number of books and scholarly articles have proposed protocols for the careful evaluation of these complex cases, a review of the collected case materials reveals that serious methodological errors, as well as problems with the conceptualisation of the disorder and the steps needed to diagnose it, are more the rule than the exception. Further, the doctors and mental health experts who pursue these cases are often haphazard and sloppy in their methods, despite the appalling harm inflicted on families when these professionals are mistaken in their conclusions.

Munchausens Syndrome By Proxy Reconsidered was one of the first published works that examined the use or misuse of MSBP allegations against women, at the very height of its popularity. It garnered considerable interest from other peers;

"In days past, any woman who complained too much to her doctor was at risk of being labeled a hysteric. Now, any mother who complains too much to her child's paediatrician is a candidate for Munchausens Syndrome by Proxy. In this book, Eric Mart takes this diagnosis apart with skilful precision." (Loren Pankratz, Ph.D., Consultation Psychologist & Clinical Professor Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health Sciences University) "One of the finest, most erudite pieces of scholarship and clear thinking I have yet to read, Dr. Mart's treatise explodes the myths of faulty reasoning and pseudoscience underlying the MSBP construct. His masterful and elevating exposé fully embraces the scientific heart of advanced differential diagnosis and shines a lasered beacon for directing competent investigations of purported abuse phenomena. 'Unenlightened expertise' will topple in the wake of this masterful work." (Kirk Witherspoon, Ph.D., Forensic & Clinical Psychologist Moline, Illinois)

(See Krysia Canvin)

Former Managing Director of leading UK-based psychotherapist and psychanalytical textbook publisher Karnac Books Ltd. Now replaced by Oliver Rathbone who has tranformed the Company into a leading conspiracy-theory publishing house, employing many theories derived from extreme far-right US christian fundamentalists.

(See also the CEO of the other leading UK publisher advocating for the SRA Myth - Informa PLC - Peter Rigby)

Child protection social worker for Rochdale Social Services department and engaged in the infamous P, C & S case (see Dr. Clive Baldwin.)

Guardian ad Litem (GaL) for Rochdale Social Services department and engaged in the infamous P, C&S case (see Dr. Clive Baldwin.)