Why this law against 'emotional cruelty' could turn every parent into a suspect

By ERIN PIZZEY

PUBLISHED: 19:04 EST, 31 March 2014 | UPDATED: 19:07 EST, 31 March 2014

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When I was growing up, my father, a diplomat, was posted to China. In 1949, the year the Communists came to power, he and my mother were put under house arrest.

After she was finally released, my mother returned to England with a Chinese woman and her two young children, who came to live with us. The woman's husband was in jail, betrayed by something their little girl had unwittingly said to the authorities.

When that man was released seven years later, he was a human wreck because he had been denounced by the word of his own child.

Changes to child neglect legislation would make 'emotional cruelty' a crime for the first time under what is being dubbed a 'Cinderella Law'. File picture

It seems incredible that this could happen in Britain, but the so-called 'Cinderella Law' proposed this week by the Government is driving us closer to that unthinkable situation.

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Why this law against 'emotional cruelty' could turn every parent into a suspect