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Petitions and activism

Please read. Shocking blog about mum who had her twins taken away. :-(

58 replies

TickledOnion · 18/02/2013 21:20

helpbeth.org/about-our-campaign/ A friend linked to this on fb.

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TickledOnion · 19/02/2013 06:27

bump

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PenguinBear · 19/02/2013 06:43

That's disgraceful, I have signed!

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thereistheball · 19/02/2013 06:43

Have you got any other information about this? Perhaps something a bit less biased? Why did your friend link to it - does he/she know the mother? I would never sign a petition based on such a one-sided account of the story, or without knowing who was asking me to sign, or why.

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medjool · 19/02/2013 06:53

I've read about this In the press and it's heartbreakIng. I didn't read this article properly but I heard the case will be retried because the judge knows the father's family so was biased in his favour. It sounds like Austrian social services are even more screwed up that British. Both kids have had teeth removed but they haven't looked into their quality of care.

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TheNebulousBoojum · 19/02/2013 07:14
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thaliablogs · 19/02/2013 08:04

What a horrible story. Those poor children.

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foreverondiet · 19/02/2013 14:04

Yes truly vile story.

re: thereistheball - after I read about it the first time my reaction was the same as you, but on looking into it further, and I have read several articles on it - sadly the article isn't one sided, its a huge miscarriage of justice, and as a result Beth's two little boys are being neglected.

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milk · 19/02/2013 15:31

I am honestly horrified this injustice could be allowed!!!

There must be a new court hearing with all the facts!

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milk · 19/02/2013 15:32

thereistheball I also thought it was biased, then I heard the whole story and I am just in utter shock!

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OHforDUCKScake · 19/02/2013 15:42

Its not very intelligently. All the bold, underline and italics make me go Hmm.

The childrwn are confused and disturbed

Really? In what way? How? Nappies at nearly 4 is not that bigger deal.

It'd be horrendous if the first bit were true. Unfortunately the very bias of it and poorly written angle make me wonder if any of its true.

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milk · 19/02/2013 16:15

The blog does read like it was written by the Daily Mail.

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milk · 19/02/2013 19:07

Super bump!

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EndCorruptionInAustria · 19/02/2013 20:13

I would urge everyone to sign this petition and email everyone you know to sign this petition. It needs to be publicized on all your social networks (facebook, twitter, etc) as much as you can.

The petition only calls for fairness in the Austrian courts which should be a fundamental human right anyway. There is nothing controversial about it. Anyone who discourages this action is probably a friend or supporter of the perpetrators of this atrocity.

Even if only 1% of what I read on the blog is true, I would be horrified enough to put my name to this cause. There has been enough independent media coverage to give me enough confidence that this woman needs our help!!

www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-british-and-austrian-governments-ensure-a-fair-court-hearing-for-beth-alexander-s-twin-sons-in-vienna-2

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PickedLast · 19/02/2013 20:46

I had the same doubts when I first heard about the case but I have now been following it for many months and have no doubt that a terrible miscarriage of justice has come about here.

It is unusual that a judge should remove children from a mother, a competent mother. It has come to light that the judge is a friend of the father. The children have deteriorated whilst in his care, noticeably, both physically and mentally. This should have alarm bells ringing, and social services investigating... but they aren't.

OHforDUCKScake - I understand your doubts but I would ask you to consider what I mention above and hope you realise that there is something unusual about this case that deserves attention.

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bodo2 · 19/02/2013 20:59

It truly is a terrible story. Every time a new update is published, it seems to be worse than the one before. She has been totally let down by the systems in place and ultimately, the children are suffering greatly. I urge everyone to sign the petition and help to spread the word about this shocking case.

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treedom · 19/02/2013 21:00

Why are people being nitpicky about writing style when it is clear that it is WRONG that a mother should not even know the basics about her children e.g. why were their teeth removed? At the very least these children deserve a fair trial. Imagine your kids without a mother. Please sign and share.

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Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 19/02/2013 21:00

Signed!!! Poor boys and poor mother :(

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ladypineapple · 19/02/2013 21:43

Please please sign this Thanks

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hendoner · 19/02/2013 21:44

I have namechanged for this as I'm too easy to identify otherwise.

I also thought the story was quite strange and one-sided when I first read it in July but obviously very sad and disturbing. So I talked to one of her brothers who I know and then dug further. This is what I found through a database of Austrian courtcases which confirms one of the incidents I had been told.

ge&Dokumentnummer=JJT20110128OGH00020060OB0025310I0000_000&ResultFunctionToken=f4d93840-3ce2-43c1-884a-0f3ffa839694&Position=1&Sort=2%7cDesc&SearchInAsylGH=&SearchInBegut=&SearchInBgblAlt=&SearchInBgblAuth=&SearchInBgblPdf=&SearchInBks=&SearchInBundesnormen=&SearchInDok=&SearchInDsk=&SearchInEbm=&SearchInEbmj=&SearchInGemeinderecht=&SearchInJustiz=&SearchInLgbl=&SearchInLrBgld=&SearchInLrK=&SearchInLrNo=&SearchInLrOO=&SearchInLrSbg=&SearchInLrStmk=&SearchInLrT=&SearchInLrVbg=&SearchInLrW=&SearchInNormenliste=&SearchInPvak=&SearchInRegV=&SearchInUbas=&SearchInUmse=&SearchInUvs=&SearchInVerg=&SearchInVfgh=&SearchInVwgh=&ImRisSeit=Undefined&ResultPageSize=100&Suchworte=zwillinge

If your German is better than mine you can read it or put it into chrome/google translate which is what I did.

It appears that SHE had custody of the kids initially and it was then removed. I do not know why. There is also reference to the husband being forcefully removed from the marital home.

What I have been told is that she was abused and the incident of the removal related to her husband turning up with a doctor friend attempting to sedate her and section her. She sensibly called the police and the court case above seems to show that the husband's behaviour was completely uncalled for or in more simple terms assault.

I agree it does seem one-sided but as I can see it there are only two extreme options and the truth is likely to lie somewhere between them.

  1. She is an unfit mother or
  2. He has manipulated the Austrian system to abuse her and his boys.


The reason why I think 1 is unlikely is for the following reasons:

  1. He has never defended himself through a campaign of communal newspaper reports and blogging since July. The newspapers regularly print at the end that they have asked for his comment. If there was a clear case that she is an unfit mother surely he would have raised it by now?


  1. Social services are not infalliable. We known this from experiences in this country - Baby P, Victoria Climbie. I also have a good friend who was in an abusive relationship in another country. She succeeded in divorcing her not so dh and had to deal with social workers. She had 1 who insisted on her exh having sole visitation rights because it's important to protect the father's relationship with the dc. This is a father who had given the oldest child a fear of having her hair washed as he regularly held her head under water while washing her hair. The child was 18 months at the time. So while some social workers are very good this cannot be said of all.


Some of their recommendations sound like sheer lunacy. She's meant to pay alimony and find a job as a cleaner. She has a degree from Cambridge and had not worked since the boys were born. He has enough money to pay for 2 philippinos to look after the boys.

  1. She is a foreigner living in a foreign country not able to work the system or speak the language to native standard. All these factors prejudice the outcome against her. If you google Austria, divorce, custody, foreign parent you find stories of prejudice against foreigners in divorce cases. In addition, if you look at some of her blogs on the case they reveal different attitudes. For example he made a case that she was an unfit mother because she didn't know how to put a calpol suppository into the babies after an operation. As we all know suppositories are not generally prescribed in the UK and I personally have never had to insert one with 3 kids.


My only reservation is I don't know how much petitions will actually achieve as what she needs is for the courts to give her custody of the kids and let her live somewhere where she can be supported as a single mother. And that in my view needs a good lawyer. However, the more spotlight that's put on this case the less likely it is to be forgotten.

Maybe getting the Daily Mail to look into it wouldn't be such a bad idea....
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Tabliope · 19/02/2013 21:45

Having read through her blog I've signed too. One of the reasons she was told she was an incompetent parent was she didn't know how to insert a paracetamol suppository. The letter from two UK doctor's explaining that culturally they're rarely used in the UK (paracetamol usually given as a syrup) means it wasn't surprising she was nervous about doing it. Not just this but there seems to be many little things in the blog that don't sound right. Also those kids looked far healthier and happier when they were younger and still with her. I hope she gets them back.

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TickledOnion · 19/02/2013 21:49

Thanks for the bump milk and for the extra information hendoner.

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dramaqueen · 19/02/2013 22:00

I have signed. Poor, poor woman.

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Sharv · 19/02/2013 22:04

Heartbreaking

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Sharv · 19/02/2013 22:26
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girliefriend · 20/02/2013 20:05

I have signed, poor woman and poor kids Sad

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