Hillingdon Council Held Steven Neary Unlawfully

A west London council acted unlawfully by refusing to allow a 21-year-old autistic man to be placed in the care of his father, the High Court ruled.

Hillingdon Council detained Steven Neary, of Uxbridge, for almost a year after he was taken into a “positive behaviour unit” in December 2009.

Mr Neary was allowed back home to his father Mark, 52, last December.

The council said it had Steven’s “best interests at heart” but had let the family down.

Mark Neary told the Court of Protection that he viewed the care by the council as a temporary move and expected his son to return home by January 2010.

But the council told the court that staff had concerns about Mr Neary’s “challenging” behaviour and weight, and argued that the care was intended to be for a longer period.

‘Lost my son’

Mr Justice Peter Jackson had reserved judgment last month after hearing evidence in the case.

Ahead of the ruling Mark Neary said: “I had been ill and agreed for Steven to go to his normal respite place. It was only meant to be for three days.

“There and then the council decided to move him to this behaviour unit.

“Initially I was in a state of shock. Then in April they started to serve deprivation of liberty orders which meant he could not come home.

“I felt helpless. I felt I had let him down, lost my own son.”

‘Genuinely committed’

Following the ruling Linda Sanders, director of social care at Hillingdon Council, said: “It is clear that there have been times when we have let both of them down.

“Cases such as Steven’s are hugely complex and we always have to carefully balance what we think is right for an individual with the wider issues such as the safety of the public.

“As the judge has said in his findings, at all times my staff were genuinely committed to ensuring that we did the right thing for Steven and had his best interests at heart.

“We recognise that we need to improve our processes and that we should have kept Steven’s father more involved during the time that we cared for Steven.”

Steven Neary has been staying with his father after leaving a local authority unit under an interim court order that allowed him to return home in December 2010.