Norway’s ‘silent scandal’ exposed

The horrors of the Child Protective Services in Norway are a secret scandal because mainstream media rarely reports on the abuse perpetrated by the infamous Barnevernet employees. Not even the conviction of one of the service’s top experts for child pornography was shocking enough to start a serious analysis of what’s happening in this country.
The short documentary broadcast by the BBC yesterday is one of those rare instances when the nightmare faced by many parents in Norway is openly discussed in mainstream media.
‘Norway’s silent scandal’ focuses on the damage inflicted upon several families in trials where the now disgraced expert’s opinion weighed heavily. Jo Erik Broyn was convicted in May for downloading thousands of hours’ worth of child pornography.

Dr. Broyn, an honorable family man

A member of the powerful ‘Child expert commission’, Broyn was called to give an opinion in many cases where children were taken away from their parents. The BBC documentary presents the case of a woman whose daughter was placed in emergency foster care after Barnevernet discovered in their otherwise beautiful home (watch the video!) a cobweb on the ceiling. Jo Erik Broyn was one of the experts who decreed the child has to be taken away from such a mother. The same guy who after the trial went home to relax watching child porn. A witness at his trial told the BBC exactly what kind of material was found on his computer - mostly boys between the ages of 10-14, but some even younger engaging in oral sex with one another or on grown-up males, children raped, disabled children abused. The guy who delighted in such horrors ruled that a mother should have her daughter taken away because of a cobweb. The expert who ruled against her is now in jail, but Cecilia still has no hope of getting her daughter back.

Another family destroyed by this man is that of Ines, mother of eight children. She and her husband were arrested and four children were placed in foster cared over one incident when she smacked one of her kids for biting his siblings. With such a large family it is inevitable the children will squabble at times and the parents will have to calm everybody down. Although none of the children complained of being subjected to violence, four were taken away, on Broyn’s expert opinion. Two of them are still in the system with promises they will be returned ‘soon’.
What is shocking about this case is there was no outcry in Norway following Broyn’s conviction, no calls to reexamine the cases in which he was involved. To this day authorities in the country offered no excuse, nobody is held accountable that such a man was allowed to work with children and there are voices asking whether someone at Barnevernet knew about Broyn’s sick passion and there was a cover up. As one of the parents interviewed by the BBC says, the whole scandal was swept under the rug.

Hopefully, Broyn won’t work for Barnevernet when he is released (in just two years’ time), but he will get to keep his children, two boys born via a surrogate mother as the expert is in a homosexual relationship. In the eyes of the system, a conviction for child pornography is nothing to worry about as compared to a cobweb on the ceiling.
Also on the subject of Barnevert you should also watch this video by @taliakerch which I find quite relevant in the context as it brings up the sexual abuse some of the children suffer while in state care. At the same time, it offers some perspective into this scandal which does not concern only Norway. Many immigrant families in Norway have been specifically targeted by Barnevernet, including from my country, Romania, as I’ve written on several occasions on my blog.
This is Euorpe’s silent scandal.

Please read the stories under #familyprotection as they contain information you might need someday.

50% of SBD made from this post will go to @familyprotection, as this account needs to grow to be able to make a difference!

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