A woman to be admired

Sharon Shoesmith is for me a person to be greatly admired.

She scraped herself off the public pavement and has fought back against the odds.

She was made a scapegoat for the inadequacies of the governments support of the social services.

She had Ed Balls making an example of her without examining his responsibility in what happened.

The media rose up against her because it made a good story and whipped up ill informed criticism of her department. This was at a time when the problem really was that the social services were ill equipped to deal with the problems they faced in Harrigey society.

In the BBC report we hear that the court heard Ms Shoesmith had not been able to find work since she was sacked, had experienced suicidal thoughts and continued to be vilified by the press.

"But as the judges have said, making a 'public sacrifice' of an individual will not prevent further tragedies," she added.

Ms Shoesmith said she had received death threats in the wake of the Baby Peter case that had "terrified" her.
"The police were advising me that I was probably at risk," she said. "And when people begin to take photographs of you on the trains and on the buses and point you out and start to shout, 'That's that woman,' you're fearful of where that can go."

The guardian reports  :

The furore had broken three weeks previously after Peter's killers were convicted, and Shoesmith found herself at the centre of media attention. She had anticipated a "steadying hand" from Balls and his officials.

Even after he ordered an Ofsted report on Haringey's safeguarding services, she had no inkling that she was to be sacked and offered up as what the appeal court judges called a "public sacrifice".

Then came Balls's infamous press conference, in which he held up the Ofsted report and announced he had used special powers to remove her.
She did not believe something as outrageous as being sacked on live TV could happen. "I was shocked. I probably didn't move out of the chair for three days. I was utterly stunned at what on earth had gone on. When I read the [Ofsted] report I questioned the evidence and I question it to this day."



Now Cameron shows his true colours by questioning the courts decision backed by the Daily Mail in a typical tabloid article that demonstrates just what Sharon Shoesmith is up against

We should not stand by and allow politicians and the press to do this to an individual that has the best interests of others at heart. She should be truly vindicated.

Again I put my trust in the legal system in the form of the High Court to defend her and make her opponents think twice in future about their totally irresponsible action against an individual.

This is the old lynch mob syndrome rearing its pubic head in a very worrying way:

Lynch a victim and flout all thoughts of the actual facts and belief in justice.

I trust Cameron and those like him get their comeuppance