According to TV2 Fyn, back in 2021 the nightmare began for Sandy Hansen of Langeland, when the municipality forcibly removed her two children, now ten years old, based on incorrect psychological diagnoses included in the investigation.
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The children have since returned home. This year, the family moved to Odense, where the mother had the children undergo another medical examination, which was once again riddled with legal irregularities and errors.
Mayor Tony Hansen (who represents the SF party) admitted on Tuesday on TV2 Fyn’s “Spotlys” program that major mistakes had been made in several cases of child removal in the municipality, and therefore he apologizes to the affected citizens.
The apology comes after recent developments in the Sandy Hansen case in Langland municipality, where TV2 Fyn reported in February that the municipality had again made serious errors and broken the law regarding the family's move to Odense. He told the source: "It pains me deeply that some children have been harmed," and added that he wanted to apologize to the families whose cases were not properly handled in Langland municipality.
Last week, the deputy mayor sent a letter to Sandy Hansen, admitting to serious errors and withdrawing the investigations.
This admission comes nine months after Sandy Hansen filed a lawsuit against Langland municipality in court, demanding compensation of 350,000 kroner.
The mayor sends an apology to the family after breaking the law.
Sandy Hansen is not the only Langland resident to receive an apology from the mayor, who told the source: “I made some serious mistakes, and I want to offer my sincere apologies for that. I am deeply affected by the fact that my administration handled the matter in such an incorrect way.”.
In March 2022, it was reported that the mayor denied breaking the law in the child removal cases and described them as a hoax, a statement the mayor made in the televised interview, even though he was aware at the time of at least three cases related to children and custody from the media, which are considered to be full of legal violations and errors. Tony Hansen commented, “I rely on what I am told by my administration for my information.”.
Although the mayor acknowledged mistakes in handling the issue, he also believes the municipality has been challenged, adding: “We have changed our management several times. Now all the municipalities are fighting over the same social workers. It is difficult to achieve continuity in managing the family, and it is not pleasant for a mayor to sit and watch these things.”
The administration lied.
The mayor said he was unaware of any violations of the law in the child removal cases in Langland municipality: “When I am told that there are no wrongdoings in the cases, I trust that.”.
This comes despite the fact that the Danish Social Appeals Board ordered Langeland Municipality to reopen all children's cases in 2022.
But the fact that there were mistakes in handling the case makes him feel disappointed.
The municipality is now hiring more staff, so that each social worker's duties are reduced to about 20 cases.
Tony Hansen said: “I would like to apologize to the families whose cases were not handled properly in Langland Municipality. This is not the standard I aim for. We should not treat our citizens in this way. My responsibility is the ultimate responsibility. This is what the Administrative Agency Act stipulates, and this is what I pledge as well.”.
However, he believes he made the right decisions based on the information he had at the time, a point the journalist challenged him on several times during the interview, asking: “But when you learned that the citizens were breaking the law, shouldn’t you have acted?” Mayor Tony Hansen reiterated his answer, saying: “I made my decisions based on the knowledge I had at the time.”.
