The conviction for child porn of a prominent expert in Norway’s troubled child protection system has put the organisation under scrutiny once again.
In April this year a child psychiatrist was convicted of downloading thousands of child pornography images on his computer. Up until his arrest he played a key role in decisions about whether children should be separated from their parents for their own good.
But there has been no public discussion in Norway about the implications of his conviction, no outrage in the newspapers, no plans to review cases he was involved in – even though the country’s child protection agency, Barnevernet, has been much criticised in recent years for removing children from their families without justification.
In April 2016 Tim Whewell reported on the story for Crossing Continents after Barnevernet attracted an international storm of protest over its child protection policies.
Tim now returns to Norway to report on this extraordinary twist in the story and to find out why child protection in one of the world’s wealthiest countries appears to be in crisis. Produced and Reported by Tim Whewell.
