Dylan's been displaying some "unusual sexual behaviour" (a Social Services term, not mine!)... Basically Si found him playing mummies and daddies with Niamh and he'd been touching her over her underwear, and then a couple of months later we found out they'd been a handful of occasions of him doing the same to a girl across the road, who's 9. Dylan's 12.
We dealt with it with the neighbours and they were happy that it had been dealt with appropriately... We basically read Dylan the riot act. We'd said he shouldn't do that after the incident with Niamh but we really went to town after this latest thing. I also checked with my boss after each thing as she's my safeguarding/child protection contact. With her help we put some measures into place and we thought that was the end of it. We basically threatened Dylan with going to the police if it happened again.
Fast forward 6 weeks and I get a call from the school to go in to discuss a safeguarding issue. I thought it would be about the girl across the road - maybe mum had said something to get counselling or something. I was upset she hadn't mentioned it first, but hey...
I get to the school to find it's not about the girl across the road at all, but that she'd told them both about her daughter and about Niamh too. Needless to say, I was livid that she'd break my trust about my own child!
The school refered to Social Services and after talking to me about the measures we'd put in place, they advised it would most likely be just a phone call to go over the details.
Well, a few days later I get a call from the Child Abuse Investigation Unit at the Police Station, and they were talking about me taking Dylan into the station the next day so they could arrest him, and talk to him about it. We spoke on the phone for a while about it, and I said how I was worried that arresting him would affect him badly, and she said they might be able to talk to him under caution, but she wasn't sure until she spoke to her superior officer.
I had to get a solicitor involved, but collected Dylan from school and took him to the station. On the way we explained what was going on, and he pretty much freaked out.
Luckily, at the station they interviewed him under caution and it emerged that there was basic touching over clothes, but that's it. The Police decided no charges need to be brought, but they'll refer the matter to the Youth Offending Team to try to get him some counselling, and to assess if anything else is needed. We thought that was the end of it.
Thursday last week I got a call from a Social Worker to arrange to come and carry out an assessment, and potentially start a child protection investigation if Niamh is at risk from Dylan.
She came today and it was awful. She basically labelled my son a child abuser, and told me my daughter is at risk of him re-offending. I couldn't stay for the whole meeting as I had to take Niamh swimming, but I'm worried about the fact they know about my mental health history, my DID and that they have basically said that we need to inform the child protection officer at school in case Dylan is a risk to other children, and that we should make sure he's supervised at all times.
I'm devastated and am so confused. I want this all to be over. I don't know what way is up at the moment. Along with this going on, I've been making trips to and from the hospital to see my nan, who has since died, and her funeral is on Monday. Also, I've had to have more painkilling injections into my back to try to help the levels of pain I'm in with my hip.
It's all going a bit crazy, and I have my last counselling session tomorrow before a 4 week break over Christmas.
I had to get a solicitor involved, but collected Dylan from school and took him to the station. On the way we explained what was going on, and he pretty much freaked out.
Luckily, at the station they interviewed him under caution and it emerged that there was basic touching over clothes, but that's it. The Police decided no charges need to be brought, but they'll refer the matter to the Youth Offending Team to try to get him some counselling, and to assess if anything else is needed. We thought that was the end of it.
Thursday last week I got a call from a Social Worker to arrange to come and carry out an assessment, and potentially start a child protection investigation if Niamh is at risk from Dylan.
She came today and it was awful. She basically labelled my son a child abuser, and told me my daughter is at risk of him re-offending. I couldn't stay for the whole meeting as I had to take Niamh swimming, but I'm worried about the fact they know about my mental health history, my DID and that they have basically said that we need to inform the child protection officer at school in case Dylan is a risk to other children, and that we should make sure he's supervised at all times.
I'm devastated and am so confused. I want this all to be over. I don't know what way is up at the moment. Along with this going on, I've been making trips to and from the hospital to see my nan, who has since died, and her funeral is on Monday. Also, I've had to have more painkilling injections into my back to try to help the levels of pain I'm in with my hip.
It's all going a bit crazy, and I have my last counselling session tomorrow before a 4 week break over Christmas.
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