dav oldham that is why we are fighting so hard we have to bring the case to public attention, since we began the fight we have found we are just one of many, for help do a web search for Justice for Families & contact them they have helped us. NEVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT & don't let the SS wear you down

Kim, Weymouth, UK

what about the families that don't get media coverage?!

dav p, oldham, uk

Why are children removed from a good family because of a nose bleed (or smacked because they ran across the road), but when a baby is beaten over many months and then dies, nothing happens. It seems to me that social services are focusing their efforts in the wrong direction, they make me sick.

Michelle, Bristol,

Quite clearly there is more to this than meets the eye. It is ridiculous to state that Social Services are removing a child from a family because of a nose-bleed and that on that basis they have managed to convince the legal system that it should go along with them.

Matt, Manchester, UK

Oh dear, once again the Social Services appear to have made a monumental error. Given their inability to come to the right decision in any case am I the only one thinking that children and families would be better protected if the so called child protection part of this institution was dismantled?

Martin, Hemel Hempstead, England

Do you REALLY believe that social workers and the judicial system would consider taking two boys away from competent and loving parents and putting them up for adoption because a two-year-old made a gesture that was open to more than one interpretation? We are not being told the full story here.

Lorna, Birmingham, England

I hope Straw's law, allowing everything more "open" and allow the media into the courts, which comes out in April, will not be too late for the Smith's. I have long thought that there are too many victims in these cases and they are not just the children! The social services should be under scrutiny

geraldine, lincoln,

Even after the prosecution admitted that it had no evidence this still happened to the Smiths. This is indeed frightening. How many other similar victims are there in the country whose stories must go unreported?

How do you show "emotional warmth" if you know social workers are watching you?

Des, Edinburgh,

Who is to say it is Helen? Point is, give these parents the right to defend themselves and SS the right to comment. That way justice will be done properly. As a nation we abolished the death sentance due to any mistakes being too grave in consequence. Losing your children is a living death sentance

Tally Milliat, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

There must be a safeguard of scrutiny otherwise, mad, bad, incompetent or just plain wrong-in-the-case-at-hand "experts" and "case workers" will lead judges to evil conclusions of commission and omission. No one should believe or trust a social worker without corroboration. Scrutiny please.

AG, London, United Kingdom

Look at the quality of the people making these judgements and wonder just how wrong it is for such matters to be dealt with in the darkness. Of course the children need protection and love but get on the wrong side of the system and parents find themselves in a Kafkaesque world. Keep up good work.

JR, Llandeilo,

We can never get the balance right. So it comes down to one question: is it better that we occasionally get a tragedy like "Baby P" from cases that get overlooked, or we regularly get hundreds of innocent families bullied and torn apart by paranoid and overzealous social workers?

David, Newcastle, U.K.

The criminal law threw out the case, no proof. How can you do this to a family with no proof what so ever. As usual social services have got it wrong but won't back down, and in the mean time is destroying a family.

Kris, Swansea,

Same problem here. Social service is the English word for Gestapo.

Tom, Leeper, USA

This is what is scary about the post Baby P. era, social workers being too vigilant ending up in decent parents losing their children through over-reaction. It is a fine balance and we need to make sure to get it right without overtures, for the good of the children AND the parents.

Alex K, Manchester, UK

So, who's to say that 'just a nosebleed' isn't the last straw in a huge case file on this couple? And how do we know that this isn't just another Baby P that has been stopped, thanks to vigilant social workers? Does everyone now understand how difficult it is to see inside family life?

Helen, Grays, Scotland