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Parents hit back over child abuse suspicions

TT/Clara Guibourg
TT/Clara Guibourg - [email protected]
Parents hit back over child abuse suspicions

A five year-old girl in Ludvika, in central Sweden, was picked up from her pre-school by police officers, and underwent a medical exam, all without her parents' knowledge.

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The parents are now reporting the incident to the Ombudsman for Justice (Justitieombudsmannen - JO), wrote the local newspaper Dalarnas Tidningar.

Social services in Ludvika suspected the girl's frequent bruises were a sure sign of abuse.

The parents were initially suspected of child abuse, but the prosecutor dropped the case.

"We haven't received any apology," said the girl's father to Dalarnas Tidningar, adding that waiting for suspicions against him and his wife to be cleared was a 'terrible time'.

According to the father, the child's bruises are caused by a hereditary disease. He wants JO to investigate the social authorities, and the circumstances which led to the girl being picked up by policemen at her pre-school.

"I'm doing this mostly to highlight the way we were innocently exposed, and to avoid this happening to others," said the man to the newspaper.

He reports feeling frustration that he wasn't believed about the girl's disease causing the bruising.

However, Ann-Sofie Andersson, in charge of the child and youth department at Ludvika municipality, points out to Dalarnas Tidningar that staff have a responsibility to report suspected child abuse to the police immediately.

"But we often try to get help from a teacher or some other employee who knows the child if it occurs during school hours," she said.

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