A 71-year-old grandmother has been jailed in the UK for taking her elderly brother to a care home in Portugal in defiance of a court order.
John Hemming, a former Liberal Democrat MP commented on the case “...in my view it stinks.”
Teresa Kirk has been given a six months sentence for contempt of court after taking her elderly brother, a dementia sufferer, to his native Portugal and refusing to obey a court order to return the 80-year-old to the UK.
The man was born in Madeira and had lived in Devon for 50 years with a "large circle of friends but did not have the capacity to make decisions about his own care,” according to a court transcript.
Mrs Kirk removed her brother from his home to hers in 2014 and the next year took him to the Algarve on holiday where he became ill, was treated and then transferred to a nursing home near Tavira despite social services in the UK saying that it was in the man’s best interests to stay in a care home in the UK.
The highly secretive Court of Protection agreed that Mrs Kirk held "deeply held, sincere beliefs" but that she had frustrated court orders.
"I am left with no alternative but to pass a sentence of imprisonment, however much I have made it perfectly clear that I do not wish to do so," said Mr Justice Newton who suspended the sentence for a week in the hope that Mrs Kirk brought her brother man back to the UK as the court had decreed.
Mrs Kirk is being held at Bronzefield prison in Surrey. John Hemming who has been following the case said that “this would be wrong if she was 25, but she is 71 and has been imprisoned for six months.
“What's very important about this case is the public have no idea as to the validity of the reasoning for the court order. I have a better understanding - and in my view it stinks.
“I have been worried about secret imprisonments for some time. In this case, the judgment was held back from publication until some weeks after she was sent to jail.”
The Court of Protection was set up under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to give social workers and lawyers the power to take over the lives of people, most of them elderly, who are ruled not to be capable of looking after their own affairs.
The court's decisions override any that the person's relatives have decided, even if they have power of attorney, like Mrs Kirk has over her brother's affairs.
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