The Supreme Court (TS) has agreed with the Administration and has endorsed the decision to withdraw custody of some parents from Castilla-La Mancha before the baby was born given the “lack of parenting skills” of both, ” the clear relationship crisis”, the consumption of substances, the “immaturity” of the mother, the “passivity” of the father and “the multiple contrary reports” to take the child out of a foster home to return him to his parents.
The Civil Chamber details the case that dates back to December 2019, when the Provincial Commission for the Guardianship and Guardianship of Minors of the Provincial Delegation of the Ministry of Social Welfare of Toledo withdrew custody of the child from the parents who had not yet born when considering that they already had three other minor children with protection measures -and with no forecast of return- and when appreciating “negligence in the care and initial follow-up of the pregnancy”, personal “difficulties” and “lack of parenting skills”.
In a sentence, to which Europa Press has had access, it is stated that the list of factors assessed by the Administration of Castilla-La Mancha also included “conflict and family violence”, “consumption of alcohol by the father”, “history of consumption of toxic substances in the mother and associated psychotic mental illness”, as well as “absence of family and social support networks”.
The couple presented a brief of opposition against the administrative resolution of said commission and requested that custody of the unborn child be handed over to them.
The Court of First Instance Number 2 of Toledo, in which the matter fell, agreed with the parents and revoked and annulled the decision, concluding that the circumstances that had led to the withdrawal of custody of the other three children they had been overcome because the parents were already “rehabilitated from their addictions”, thus guaranteeing that they now enjoyed custody of their unborn child.
The Administration of Castilla-La Mancha, dissatisfied with the decision, filed an appeal that was dismissed by the Provincial Court of Toledo, for which reason it took the case before the Supreme Court.
The minor in question was born during the judicial journey and since April 23, 2020, he has been under the guardianship of the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha. He was first in an emergency foster care and from June 2021 with the foster family with whom he still lives.
When analyzing the case, the magistrates have influenced the current situation: not only in the “total integration” of the child with his foster family, but also “the conflicts and bad relationship” between the biological parents as a result of the mother being left pregnant by another person outside the relationship.
In the resolution, for which magistrate José Luis Seoane has been a speaker, the Supreme Court has stressed that the current scenario is not the same as the one that existed when the Provincial Court of Toledo ratified the sentence of the trial court.
The court stresses that the biological parents withdrew from the family violence intervention program and that there are new reports stating that the mother’s parental capacity is “questionable and limited”, that she has income from “underground economy and dubious legality”; that the father has “almost exclusive dedication” to work and that the relationship is not going well. In the opinions it is also insisted that the mother decides whether to continue with the father of the child or go with the one who will be the father of the child that she is now expecting.
“Neither of the parents can attend to the needs that a minor requires”, collects one of the reports in which it is pointed out that the best thing for the best interest of the minor is that the foster family adopt him.
In another report, for their part, the experts point out that removing the child from his family environment, from everything he knows and from his references, so that he lives with his biological parents “would mean a succession of traumas for the child and a significant setback in their ability to bond and in their security”.
Thus, the Supreme Court has upheld the appeal filed by the lawyer from Castilla-La Mancha and revoked the sentence issued by the TSJ in favor of the parents.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
