State failing to protect tortured children

CHILDREN are being left in families where they are being tortured and physically abused because the state’s ability to intervene is restricted by the Constitution, according to a child law expert.

Solicitor Catherine Ghent said children whose parents are married are “discriminated against” and “placed at greater risk” under the Constitution as the state can only move in where there is “an immediate and fundamental threat” to the child.

She was speaking at the publication of an opinion poll which showed almost two thirds of adults surveyed said they would vote in favour of a new referendum on children’s rights.