The June 7th The trial against the current provincial deputy of Bizkaia Social Action, Sergio Murillo, and others three members of your department by sign a regional order by which Irune Costumero was removed from custody of his daughter of five years when considering that “it manipulated it against his father”. They applied the call “parental alienation syndrome“, a false pathology that is not recognized by any international medical or psychiatric institution, but that is applied in judicial processes and has as a consequence the withdrawal of custody of mothers, accusing them of influencing their children not to want to see their fathers.

The girl was separated from her mother in 2017 and despite her efforts, the case has been pending review by the justice since then, during which time the minor lives with her father. In the trial, which will be held between June 7 and 9, the defendants face a request for 5 years and 6 months in prison for crimes of prevarication, abuse and the crime of mental injuries for having taken a daughter from her mother without the knowledge of the judge, who had previously decided on a regime of custody shared.

The court must rule on whether the four heads of the institution separated the two knowing they weren’t acting right and if they are, in addition, responsible for their suffering.

An attempt will be made to determine if this situation represents a case of institutional violence, as can be seen from a report sent by the HIM-HER-IT in September 2020 to the Government of Spain asking for explanations.

The moment of how the girl was ripped from her mother

The UN brief itself recounts how, after the agreement of a shared custody between Costumero and his ex-partner agreed by a court in 2013, the father’s complaint before the social services of the Diputación de Bizkaia affirming that the mother influenced the girl so that she did not spend time with him, motivated an action by this institution. Costumero had denounced his ex-partner for mistreatment, but the case was closed with an acquittal.

The social services decided to withdraw custody from the mother and for her guardianship to pass to the administration and at the same time to cede it to the father. To do this, they carried out what is known as “plucking“. They summoned Costumero and his daughter without explaining the reasons, and once in the social services units, they forcibly separated the girl from her mother with the help of three policemen and three private security agents and by the workers of the children’s services The separation was not communicated to the court nor was it endorsed by a judge.

In the trial, Costumero will try to show that the Provincial Council of Bizkaia took away his daughter in an “illegitimate” and “violent” manner, without paying attention to the rejection and fear that her father generated.

“I do it for my daughter and for other children who suffer this institutional torture”

Irune Costumero says that nothing will give her four years back without her daughter, “nor separate birthdays or Christmases”, nor will it alleviate “the pain of seeing her leave crying and afraid”, but she trusts that the Biscayan Court will condemn the four officials who made his life and that of his daughter “torture.”

“They have advised me to throw in the towel, to leave it now that they finally let me be with her one weekend out of every two and part of the holidays; they have even threatened me,” this mother explains in an interview.

He defines his struggle in recent years as “David against Goliath” and explains that he does it for “my daughter and for other children” who suffer “that institutional torture.”

The Diputación has not wanted to publicly expose its position in the face of these accusations and has added that “whatever it has to say, it will do so in court.”