Dad locked in cell overnight for smacking son

A man was arrested and spent the night in a cell because he smacked his son on the bottom. The boy had wandered off alone when they were shopping after dark. Dad found his son 10minutes later in a nearby park.He gave him a smack on the bottom.

3 hours later 4 police officers and a specialist child support officer took the boy away and arrested dad.

This happened in Plymouth. What a shame that baby P had the misfortune to live in Haringey. Had he lived in Plymouth his life could have been completely different.

Yes, its definitely a bit of a postcode lottery to decide what sort of care the social services dish out.

When I first read this one I thought the police were a bit heavy handed, but then again they're not allowed to use their own judgement anymore, they have to go by the book.

But then the more I thought about it I think they were right, hitting an adult, even a slap is called assault, yet hitting a child is still legal

I wouldn't call smacking a child's bottom hitting. When I was a child I was punished severely for the least thing as were my siblings. My children had the odd smack on the bottom until about the age of 8. They were never beaten, but we have brought them up quite strictly compared to some of their peers. They are all now well adjusted adults, all have respect for the law and have told us that they were glad we kept them in line.

lulu wrote:

4 police officers and a specialist child support officer took the boy away and arrested dad.

Glad to see taxpayers money is being used so well and that five police officers turned up to deal with this dangerous criminal. How stupid are the authorities? They either sit back and allow a small boy to be beaten to death or they go in mob handed to arrest what looks like a normal caring (if slightly over-reacting) dad. It's one extreme to the other.

Whatever happened to good old commonsense?