21 December 2006

AMSTERDAM — About 1,000 youth welfare officers protested in Utrecht on Thursday morning against the prosecution of a family guardian in Noord-Holland.

The woman was the youth welfare officer supervising the three-year-old Savanna, who died in 2004 from systematic abuse and neglect.

The public prosecution recently said it would initiate legal proceedings against the so-called family guardian on charges of culpable homicide.
 
But the protesting youth welfare officers claim that a social worker cannot be held accountable for the death of Savanna.

The defendant's lawyer, youth welfare directors and caretaker minister Rita Verdonk — who was recently placed in charge of child welfare — spoke at the rally.
 
But the protest group Vaders4Justice also protested on Thursday, stressing that it was a scandal that the welfare officers did not accept responsibility for Savanna's death.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2006]

Subject: Dutch news