Mother Of Mixed Race Boy Accused Of Child Trafficking

A young boy and his mother have been held by police under suspicion of child trafficking when he was in fact her biological son and simply mixed race.

The incident occured when a female constable challenged Julie Maynard and her 12 year old son Joshua as they were returning from a day trip to France. According to reports Ms Maynard was told she would have to show her passport to prove she was not attempting to smuggle a child into the UK. The constable is believed to have been confrontational with Ms Maynard and accused her of child trafficking with what is believed to be little evidence at the time other than the fact that her child was of a slightly different skin colour.

Ms Maynard was detained by police under the terrorism act and whist investigations took place she was seperated from Joshua who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and autism. It took two hours before she was allowed to see her son again when she was taken to a detention room. Joshuas natural father was black despite the fact that Ms Maynard and her husband are white, they were told by police that due to this they could be helf for nine hours as they carried out investigations.

Since the incident and the police being provided with proof of Ms Maynard being Joshua's mother they have received a letter of apology from Kent Police Frontier Operations informing them that the female officer involved in the incident had been transferred to other duties of her own accord. As way of compensation the force have paid £300 to Joshua's school welfare fund as well as refunding the family their ferry fare.

Published by: Jon Vickery