R (Chromatic) v Westminster: On the Withholding of Movement and the Pathologisation of Adolescent Intelligence

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🪞SWANK ENTRY
“The Bicycle Is a Threat”
On Bureaucratic Storytelling, Control by Confiscation, and the Fear of Adolescent Independence

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⟡ Filed Date:

15 July 2025

⟡ Reference Code:

SWANK/PROPERTY/ROMEO-BIKEBLOCK

⟡ Court Filename:

2025-07-15_SWANK_Addendum_RomeoBicycleControl.pdf

⟡ One-Line Summary:

Westminster refuses to return Romeo’s bicycle — not because he’s unsafe, but because he’s too self-aware.

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I. What Happened

On 14 July 2025, Polly Chromatic requested a simple, lawful exchange of property:
– She would deliver books and academic materials
– Westminster would return personal property seized during removal, including phones, iPads — and Regal’s bicycle

Instead, social worker Kirsty Hornal responded with a bureaucratic fable about Regal cycling “the wrong way” up a dual carriageway, accepting a lift from a stranger, and displaying “defiance” when questioned about his road sense.

These events are alleged to have occurred while Regal is still in their care — under a foster placement chosen and overseen by Westminster themselves.

Yet they now claim that because of these events, they must withhold his bicycle.

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II. What the Email Confirms

• Regal is currently in Westminster’s custody

• Westminster claims he is unsafe but offers no incident report, no police log, no foster care statement

• The bicycle is being withheld as part of an informal behavioural intervention

• Romeo’s emotional maturity and protectiveness are being reframed as “defiance”

• The foster placement has been unable to manage him — so the bicycle becomes a symbolic lever

This isn’t a safeguarding plan.
This is passive punishment by deprivation.

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III. Why SWANK Logged It

Because confiscating a bicycle is not protective when the child is already under 24-hour institutional oversight.
Because blaming the child for behavioural issues while in your own placement is not safeguarding — it’s deflection.

We logged this because Regal is not unsafe — he is too articulate, too protective of his siblings, and too resistant to being rewritten.

The bicycle isn’t the issue.
His autonomy is.

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IV. Violations Identified

• Article 8 ECHR – Interference with autonomy and family life

• Children Act 1989 – Obstruction of healthy development, access to recreation, and personal items

• Disability Disregard – Ignoring parental rights in shared planning

• Retaliatory Conditioning – Use of deprivation as compliance management

• Foster Placement Failure – Delegating control to youth workers instead of addressing breakdowns in care

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V. SWANK’s Position

Let us say what the email does not:

Westminster is punishing Romeo for being intellectually inconvenient.
He remembers. He resists. He speaks.

And the bicycle — his movement, his body, his autonomy — is now restricted not by safety policy, but by bureaucratic emotion management.

Westminster does not fear the road.
They fear that Regal will pedal toward the truth.

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⟡ SWANK London Ltd. Evidentiary Catalogue
Downloaded via www.swanklondon.com
Not edited. Not deleted. Only documented.

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