This application @Melanie_Newman has required huge courage - she at one point she thought she might be hit with costs, contrary to the President's guidance. It has taken 5 hearings; the LA and @MyCafcass appointed QCs to fight her application to be able just to *see* the papers.. https://twitter.com/Melanie_Newman/status/1291321370878640128

..in a case where the Crt of Appeal ruled that an adoption placment order on a child had been made in a lower court on "the slimmest of evidence". As per best journalistic practice, + given the immense ramifications of the state permananently removing children on such evidence...

..Melanie decided she wanted to investigate to see precisely what evidence it was. Despite the mother agreeing that she should see the paperwork, moreover a mother who now has full parental responsiblity back for her child, the LA and @MyCafcass said this should not be allowed...

... + despite 2 days in court with her pro bono QC Anya Proops arguing that the importance of the media's watchdog role, Mrs Justice Roberts has not permitted Melanie to see any of the social work or expert evidence that would allow her to understand better what went so wrong...

...and has refused her permission to appeal. I will be blogging on this later today. The personal risk that freelance journalists take to bring such applications is immense, + quite apart from the vast amount of work and time required...

... results almost inevitably in sleepless nights worrying that, notwithstanding the President's guidance, judges will countenance the idea of a costs application, which will bankrupt you.

To me, the very idea that the state can remove a child, very nearly have it adopted, be told by the Court of Appeal that it had acted unlawfully (make no bones about it, that is what happened) in submitting weak evidence (when it should only be the BEST evidence that results...

...in such a draconian state power being exercised, and then bleats... 'oh no, the child's privacy trumps the public's right to know (or in this case, a journalist's simple right to see) the detail of how we acted so appallingly' just demonstrates again how local authorities...

...feel they can act with impunity from true, public accountability. Worse, it means that they are not willing to take every opportunity to learn from their failings. I'm pretty horrified at the judge's decision, which only bolsters the state's contempt for public accountability.