This unbelievable news story broke yesterday.

Like many toddlers, Zak Hessey was a fussy eater who refused his mother’s healthy home cooking.

Concerned about his falling weight, his parents sought the advice of doctors. That simple act triggered a shocking chain of events that led to the youngster being put into foster care for four months.

Paul and Lisa Hessey believe in the long-term benefits of healthy eating and rejected advice to feed their two-year-old son high-calorie snack food such as chocolate, crisps and cakes.
Taken into care: Zak Hessey was placed in a foster home for four months because his parents refused advice to feed him junk food

Taken into care: Zak Hessey was placed in a foster home for four months because his parents refused advice to feed him junk food

To their horror, social workers put Zak into foster care ‘to assess his needs’ and allegedly threatened the couple with the loss of their parental rights if they fought the decision in court.

‘I was absolutely devastated, I broke down in tears,’ recalled Mrs Hessey, 48. ‘I was scared out of my wits. I phoned Paul to tell him and he just broke down on the phone.’

But they went to court and, after four months, Zak returned home with the blessing of social services, who accepted he had good and caring parents.

Daily Mail – Boy, two, is snatched by social workers after mother refused doctor’s advice to feed him junk food

Wow. Can you believe it? I can’t.

Problem 1: There are conflicting details. These might be minor, typographical errors, but these inconsistencies reflect shoddy reported. It seems several news outlets relied on details from the others for their stories.

In the Daily Mail, Lisa Hessey is 48 years old. In the Mirror, she’s 28. In the Daily Star, she’s 28 and her husband, Paul, is 48. In the Sheffield Telegraph, she’s 48 again.

Problem 2: She’s a[n apparent] star chaser. Her Twitter account (HonestLiza) had a grand total of 6 posts. The first post dates November 7, 11 days before Zak was returned to her, and references how great Nicholas Cage is. The next post is a comment directed to Kelly Osbourne, on November 20, 2 days after Zak’s return, informing her she looked beautiful on television.

On November 26, over a week after Zak was returned, she send a Tweet to Jamie Oliver.

@jamie_oliver Jamie HELP, me and my husband have 5 children, we feed our children good food, im getting slated for not giving them junkfood

According her to comments to the Daily Mail, on December 2, she’d been fully cleared. Again, on November 30, she sends Jamie Oliver another message.

@jamie_oliver our familys on news tomorrow (itv calender) you can watch on i player, we need your help please get intouch, for our baby..x

Why would her baby need help? He had already been returned home, and, by her own words, social services admitted there was nothing wrong. From the Daily Mail

Mrs Hessey said: ‘Social services did a complete about turn. They admitted that in foster care Zak was exactly the same with his food as he was at home.

‘They said we were very good parents. I still find it hard to come to terms with how we have been treated.’

If this happened as she claimed, then I can fully understand why she would go to the news with the story. It’s a gross and overreaching misuse of power. Why, though, would she request help as if there was some uncertainty about the situation?