AN ex-Kingswinford and Wallheath councillor is spearheading a campaign involving hundreds of British families who claim their children have been the victims of “forced adoptions.”

Lynn Boleyn has received complaints from six families in the Dudley borough who claim their children have been taken from them despite a lack of evidence that they were at risk of harm or neglect.

So far three of the mothers have joined the nationwide Class Action campaign which is taking the fight to the European Court of Human Rights.

Miss Boleyn, former vice chairman of a select committee on Dudley Council’s children’s services, said she was “totally convinced” the mothers were capable of caring for their offspring.

The three cannot be named to protect the identity of their children, but include a 21-year-old Dudley mum whose two daughters, aged two and three, have been adopted; a 16-year-old Colley Gate teenager whose baby son is being put up for adoption; and a 31-year-old Halesowen mother, whose five daughters are with three different foster carers, the youngest of whom is up for adoption.

They see the Class Action campaign as their best hope of winning their children back and after years of battling against the system, are grateful for the support from the former Liberal Democrat councillor.

“She’s brilliant. I don’t know how to thank her, she has done so much. I would not have got this far without her,” said the Dudley mum.

Their legal advocate Sam Hallimond, of Spanish law firm Freedom Advocacy and Law, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of all the families with the international courts, including the International Criminal Court.

The aim is to prove their human rights have been violated in a bid to overturn decisions and halt adoption orders being made until the cases are resolved by the courts in The Hague.

Miss Boleyn said the number of allegations of “forced adoptions” was snowballing.

She said: “I have met the families, met the mothers and looked at all the evidence that’s been put before the courts.

“Social workers do a very difficult job and I applaud those who intervene to protect children, but they are taking the wrong children for the wrong reasons.

Miss Boleyn, who claimed much of the evidence against the mums was “flimsy”, added: “I can’t walk away from it. I have been so appalled at what goes on behind closed doors.”

Her experience with children’s services as a councillor had led her to believe adoption was always a last resort, and when the Dudley mother contacted her she expected to find a good reason for the girls’ adoption, but instead was “totally horrified” by the decision.

Miss Boleyn is also pressing for payments to foster parents, which can be hundreds pounds a week, to be “better spent” keeping families together.

A spokesman for Dudley Council said: “Our adoption procedures follow an approved legal process with the final adoption order determined by a court of law after long and considered opinion from counsel and learned judges.”