Dangers of spurious evidence

The protection of children should always be society’s first priority but individuals should avoid making accusations based on spurious evidence.

Last week, The  Guardian published an article in which the brother of a single mother in a new town was suspected of behaving inappropriately around a child. The allegation, based on a half-heard joke by the child sparked an inquiry into potential child abuse.

Expert education lawyer, Nicholas Hancox, says that an implied duty to believe suggestions of inappropriate behaviour have the potential to damage families when all of the facts are not known. “It is clear that a teacher in possession of 10% of the facts and 90% of a child’s exaggerated joke cannot know what to do for the best.”

He continues, “If he or she reports the ‘disclosure’ to the Local Safeguarding Children Board, it might all turn out to be an embarrassing mistake, innocent lives will be wrongfully disrupted and much police time and children’s service time will be completely wasted”.

Hancox says that the difficulty lies in knowing when to act: “If the teacher does nothing and the child is assaulted, then they will be damned for life as the person that failed to save the child?”