Mother deemed too stupid to care for her daughter

A mother has had her three-year-old daughter taken away from her by social services after authorities deemed her too stupid to look after the child.

Rachel Pullen, 24, claims the authorities 'kidnapped' the youngster and put her into foster care when she was just six months old. Now a family court has ruled her daughter should be placed with adoptive parents within the next three months before all contact is severed. Miss Pullen is fighting the decision in the European Court of Human rights.

Officials claim Miss Pullen, a single mother, from Nottingham, lacks the intelligence to cope with the complex medical needs of the child, who was born prematurely.



The child, named only as Baby K, is currently with foster parents even though a psychiatrist said Miss Pullen "good literacy and numeracy and her intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range."

"It has been going on for three years now. She has been kidnapped," said Miss Pullen, "All I want to do is care for my daughter and she wants her mummy back. She keeps asking why she can't come home to live with me when I visit her."

Nottingham City Council said its priority was the future welfare of the child.