The county council has forked out more than £18,000 defending its right to keep an Italian woman’s baby after she had a forced caesarean.

The authority spent £11,632.00 on subsidising its own legal team in the case of Alessandra Pacchieri, £4,706.43 on family lawyers, £1,900 on court fees and £60.31 on courier fees. Essex social services has kept her daughter since the procedure in August 2012.

The figures come following a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Chronicle.

Reported by the Essex Chronicle. You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.