The detail emerged in a court order that sets out for the first time some of the facts in the controversial case, following reports that the child was Christian and was unhappy at having been placed in the care of foster care of two Muslim families in succession.
The order, handed down by the judge on Tuesday and made public the following day amid intense interest in the case, said an assessment of the foster placement determined the child was “settled and well cared for”.
It had been reported that there were concerns over her welfare because she was placed with a foster carer who wears a niqab and who encouraged the English-speaking child to learn Arabic.
A report in the Times, based on confidential internal documents from Tower Hamlets council, said the child had been found to be “very distressed” after a necklace with a Christian cross was taken from her and she was banned from eating bacon.
The judge, Khatun Sapnara, decided the child should live with her grandmother at Tower Hamlets’ request. A similar application by the child’s mother had previously been turned down because no assessment of the suitability of the grandmother to care for the child had yet been carried out.
“Documents including the assessment of the maternal grandparents state that they are of a Muslim background but are non-practising. The child’s mother says they are of Christian heritage,” the order handed down by Sapnara read.
“The assessment of the grandmother as a special guardian for the child is now available. It is positive and recommends her as a suitable carer.”
Sapnara added that the court-appointed guardian, who acts in the child’s interests, carried out an assessment of the placement with the second Muslim family referenced in the Times’s report, including speaking to the child alone. “The guardian has no concerns as to the child’s welfare and she reports that the child is settled and well cared for by the foster carer.”
At a hearing on 27 June, the judge had told Tower Hamlets to produce a “statement to address the cultural appropriateness of the foster care placement”. She confirmed on Tuesday that one had been filed and said Tower Hamlets disputed the allegations made against the foster carers.
The judge also set out some of the background to the case. The order published on Wednesday makes clear that the child was initially taken away from her mother in March this year by police. Her foster care arrangements were handled by the council and there was “no culturally matched foster placement available”.
The judge said that the child’s mother raised concerns about the “appropriateness of the placement” and has made further complaints this week. “The court today directed a further statement from the local authority to address those concerns.” The mother did not, however, apply to the court for a change of foster carer.
“The current foster care placement (which was a respite placement while the original foster carer went on holiday) was due to end today,” the order said.
It added: “For the avoidance of doubt, the court makes it clear that the decision to approve the new care arrangements for the child to live with the grandmother under an interim care order is as a result of the application of the relevant law to the evidence now available to the court and not as a result of any influence arising out of media reports.”
Reporting on the case by the Times and the Daily Mail has been criticised by members of the Muslim community, who said the family dispute had been seized upon in an effort to demonise the faith.
Some of the Times reports and subsequent coverage in the Daily Mail have been seized upon by far-right activists including the former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, as well as Britain First and the EDL.
It also emerged that the Daily Mail and Mail Online used an altered image to illustrate the story in web and print coverage on Tuesday. The original image of a couple in Islamic dress with a child was originally captioned “happiness couple in Dubai park” but was amended to cover the woman’s face with a veil. The online version was later altered to pixelate the woman’s face.
The two papers could face an investigation into their reporting of the story by Ipso, the newspaper regulator, after complaints were made about their coverage. The Times has attracted 10 complaints regarding its articles and the Mail has generated six. Both newspapers have been approached for comment.
A spokesperson for Tower Hamlets council said: “We welcome the decision by the family court to publish the case management order from yesterday. It supports our position that we always had the child’s best interests at heart and it was Tower Hamlets council’s proposal to have the child moved to the care of her grandmother.
“It also gives other information about the case that we have been unable to provide in recent days due to legal restrictions to protect the child and foster parents from being identified.””
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