This is our story - we have had no choice but to change names to try to maintain our anonymity - names and dates have been changed to protect our family. 

Several years ago, my wife and I adopted two beautiful children from Suffolk Council. Our children were removed from their physically and emotionally abusive birth mother and father for their own safety - one of the children had suffered from a fractured skull as a very small baby. The Council had deemed the birth parents unfit to care for children and had warned the parents that should they have more children, they would run the risk of losing those children also, to safeguard the children. 

The council put the children up for adoption and we endured a long and arduous evaluation process.  At last, the children were placed with us - they were beautiful and we could not have been happier once the details were finalised and the children were living with us in our own home. 

However, during the initial adoption process, the council had expressed serious concerns about the birth parents given the abusive and violent behaviours our adopted children had to endure.

The years passed and the children were doing just great - they had some nightmares and had an obvious lack of trust but we were able to get through this - the children were now feeling safe, loved and protected. Everything we wished for. 

A few years later, the birth mother of our adopted children became pregnant again and the Council approached us to ask if we would consider adopting the new baby - the birth mother was evaluated again and very quickly found to be unfit to care for this new baby. Suffolk Council decreed that this baby was in immediate risk of serious harm from the birth mother. We agreed to adopt the new baby - keeping the siblings together and having a new addition to our family would be wonderful.

However, during the adoption process, the Council's Solicitors disclosed our Rule 29 adoption file to the birth mother - this file contained our home address, our names, pictures and very, very sensitive data.  This left us feeling incredibly frightened - the Council’s gross negligence in divulging our sensitive data to the birth mother and family, who have a history of abuse and violence, left us feeling scared and helpless. Suffolk Council admitted negligence immediately and as such we gave them time to remedy the situation - the stark truth is we have to move house and potentially to change our names to protect the children and us. However, after promising to support us financially and emotionally, the Council has since hid behind its lawyers. They refuse to help - we are continuously sat behind a wall of bureaucracy.

 A year later, our world was turned upside down. Our beloved eldest son contracted a terrible viral infection, lost consciousness and never regained consciousness despite the amazing efforts of the paramedics. 

My wife and I are still beside ourselves with grief - we were already terrified that the birth mother and father, who between them had a history of violence, would turn up at the funeral and try to kidnap our remaining children. This is a feeling that words cannot accurately describe.

We have done our best to give Suffolk Council the opportunity to resolve this matter after admitting fault, however, they now do nothing to help us!  We also approached the ICO but they took no action. We have contacted our local M.P and he has made a complaint to the Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsmen regarding the lack of ICO action. This is a gross negligence issue and under the new GDPR guidelines, there should be severe consequences for the Council.

We gather that Suffolk County Council seem to have considerable issues with this type of breach - they saw an increase of 20% in the number of breaches of private data – from 221 cases in 2017 to 265 in 2018. Five of the six authorities in Suffolk have seen an increase in breaches year-on-year. A data breach can consist of any personal, private or classified information being accessible or exposed to those it is not intended for.

Suffolk Council should be there to protect us as they initially promised. They have a clear duty of care to safeguard my family from the threat of violence from the birth parents, however, we feel very let down and the Council has abandoned us whilst it cover us this terrible error - an error that they openly admit to making and an error that has us now in constant fear! We live in fear, always wondering whether our children will get snatched from school or worse. We feel like prisoners in our own home and have been forced to install CCTV and protective film to our windows to stop people looking in. My wife and I live with the constant fear of our childrens’ abusers turning up to take our children, or worse, do them physical harm as they once did.

We have gone to a solicitor Glyn Maddock referred to by our local M.P and he is trying to get us justice.  However, we cannot afford to keep him with us for long. Suffolk councils Lawyers know this - they know we can't afford to take our case to court. We feel the Council are dragging their heels, stringing us along until we give up, and run out of money. Like many, we are a working-class family without access to much money and we are trying to raise enough funds so we can take our case to the Courts. 

Our reasons for attempting to raise funds are to a) to try to ask for assistance in paying our considerable legal fees: barrister litigation, court fees, legal letters and correspondence - we just don't have the money to fight this. We need approx £12000 to take this all the way, or until the council concedes and helps us to relocate and to provide our children with the security they deserve, under the law.

Our final key goal is to try and make sure this does not happen to anyone else. We have approached several local, regional and national newspapers to cover our story. We will keep all donaters up to speed on when these articles hit the public domain.

I cannot offer enough thanks in advance - if you can find it in your hearts to help our family, please donate what you can. Every penny will help us protect our children and see that the authorities are made to account for what they have done to us, and many others and to ensure that they do not continue to put other families at risk. We are trying to get as much coverage as possible - you can find a recent article covering our very personal battle published by the East Anglian Daily Times: Suffolk Council Endanger Family via Data Breach

You are our all last hope and we hope you can help us. God bless you all.