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Boy left to die just like Victoria Climbie
Paul Cheston, Jack Lefley and Robert Mendick11.11.08
A TODDLER was battered to death after blunders by doctors, social workers and police allowed the abuse to go unchecked for months.
The 17-month-old suffered appalling injuries while in the care of Haringey council - the authority criticised over the death of Victoria Climbie eight years ago which was meant to have brought in safeguards to prevent future cases.
The boy's mother, her boyfriend and a lodger were convicted today of involvement in his death but were cleared of murder because it could not be established who struck the fatal blows.
Baby P, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered more than 50 injuries, many to his face which made him virtually unrecognisable. He was paralysed from a broken back, had eight fractured ribs and 15 wounds to the mouth. He was seen 60 times by health and social workers in the eight months before he was found dead in a blood-spattered cot at his north London home. The child had been on the council's child protection register for nine months.
This afternoon Sharon Shoesmith, chairwoman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, defended their care of the child.
"The child was killed by members of his own family," she said, and not by social services.
"The very sad fact is that we can't stop people who are determined to kill children.
"I am satisfied that the action that should have been taken was taken."
Ms Shoesmith said the council had looked carefully to see if anybody may have needed to be disciplined. "There was not the evidence there for anyone to lose their jobs," she said. At the Old Bailey today, the mother's 32-year-old boyfriend and lodger Jason Owen, 36, of Bromley, were convicted of causing or allowing the death of Baby P.
The mother, 27, had already pleaded guilty to the charge. They will be sentenced later. The mother and boyfriend cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court heard.
* Two days before Baby P died, and while suffering a broken back, hospital paediatrician Dr Sabah Alzayyat decided not to examine him because she thought the baby was 'miserable and cranky'.
* Social worker Maria Ward said the baby had 'appeared well' just days before he died.
* The mother was arrested twice over suspicious injuries but the day before Baby P died she was told no further action would be taken against her.
* Police had suggested three times that the baby should be taken into care, and sought legal advice, but social workers sent him back to his mother.
Three people have received formal written warnings over the death of a 17-month-old toddler, Haringey council confirmed today.
Children's Minister Beverley Hughes this afternoon announced a nationwide independent review of child protection services. She has asked Lord Laming, whose inquiry into the Climbie case made several recommendations, to prepare an independent report of progress being made across the country.
Lord Laming told Radio 4's The World At One: "It would be awful wherever it happened, but it seems particularly sad that it has happened in the same area where Victoria experienced this awful cruelty and a terrible death and involved the very same services. Of course it is dispiriting."
The home of Baby P is not far from the house where eight-year-old Victoria suffered at the hands of her great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning. Mor Dioum, director of the Victoria Climbie Foundation, said: "This is even worse than Climbie because all the signs were there but they never saw them. There were many, many, chances to save this little boy. But this social worker, her bosses at Haringey council and others missed those opportunities.
"This just goes to show what we already know - that they have learned none of the lessons of Victoria Climbie and that innocent children continue to die in Haringey because of their incompetence."
Neither police nor social workers knew the mother's boyfriend, described as a sadist 'fascinated by pain', was living in the family home for the last nine months.
After the death, police found the house littered with the boyfriend's pornography as well as Nazi memorabilia. Gillie Christou, in charge of social workers looking after children on the register in Haringey, told the court she had agreed to keep the baby with his mother. She said: "I made the decision at the time based on the material in front of me and based on the background to the case."
Detective Superintendent Caroline Bates said police errors were made. She said: "With hindsight, having the benefit of a major investigation, we know quite clearly that the mother was lying and trying to subvert agencies involved with the family."
Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provides paediatric services to children from Haringey, said Dr Alzayyat's contract had not been renewed.
Dr Jane Collins, chief executive of the hospital, said: "Dr Alzayyat should have identified the possibility that he had suffered non-accidental injuries."
She said Dr Alzayyat was appealing against the decision not to renew her contract.
Reader views (53)
It took me sometime to try and not think about this daily since I read about it. I still cry and wish I was there to hold him and love him and re-assure him that he will be okay and no harm will come to him ever. It hurts me and cripples me physically thinking and reading about this tragedy. I have children and grandchildren. Watching them grow and learn is an inspiration and a blessing from God and I am so priviledged. I can not and will never understand this cruelty and hate. It is upsetting knowing their sentence but if not in this world come judgement day they will have to answer to the Almighty. We'll see just how far that will get them!
Rest in Peace always Baby Peter. God Bless you! And I hope and pray that his father pulls thru this. Baby Peter is in good hands now!
- Cristina, USA
i agree, its disgusting they are not being charged with murder, it doesnt matter who struck the fatal blow they ALL took part in the abuse and gradually broke him till he died , they are ALL responsible. they should be givin life . gordon brown should show this child some respect in death that he didnt get in life and punish those who took from him his future, his life. he is the one with the life sentence not these animals. and they should pay. its ridiculous the charge there on! i cry every time i think of this little boy and what he suffered, and it shocks me that people are still failing him in death as they did in his short , pain filled life. they murdered him, they tortured him until he died, thats not manslaughter its a slow and painful murder and they should be held accountable and the people who failed sacked and held as an example and maybe people will be more tourough and cautious when theya re dealing with the lives of innocent children. im heartbroken for him i truly am and im only glad he cant be made suffer any more. its there turn , give them what they deserve, life in prison.
- Bronagh Kenny, dublin, ireland
i just cant understand how any mother could allow this to happen to their own child so innocent and helpless, baby p was only just learning to walk and talk and explore his world when it was cruely taken away from him, i have a 15 month old little boy and he is my whole world and it makes me feel physically sick to look at him and think of anything happening to him never mind allowing it to go on under my nose. What kind of mother was she and how could that doctor not realise he was paralysed... she was probabaly his last chance to live and she let him down and let him go home with his killers. It upsets me so much... there are so many childless people out there who would do anything to love a child like precious little baby p but instead of giving him up and letting someone else love him the way he should have been loved... this was his fate... why didnt his mother save him and let him go i just dont understand it all. 
sleep tight baby p xxxx
- Rachel, birkenhead, uk
i write this in a blur of tears. trying not to think of that poor child and the torment in his soul, whilst living a short, rotten life, unloved and never saved by the people we trust to look after our children. is this progress?
- Neal, Cardiff
I find it amazing that our pime minister Gordon Brown can mak e a public announcement on Johnathen Ross over a silly radio broadcast and remain quiet about such a sickening case of child abuse and neglect by civil servants. Gordon Brown should use his powers to make the mother and vile sadistic Jason Owen stand trial for MURDER not the pathetic charge of allowing a child to die for which they will probably only serve 2-3 years. He should also sack and bring manslaughter charges to all parties involved in the "care" of Baby P.
Gordon Brown I am disgusted with you !
- Clive Griffin, isle of wight
If you wish to torture a baby to death, do it in Haringey: you will not be challenged by their teams of social workers who will instead let you carry on until the child is cold and dead.
- Neil, london uk, Airstrip ONE .
These three vile individuals deserve their own medicine, regular merciless and shameless beatings, from their dilapidated prison cells.
As for all the "professionals" and authorities involved space should be allocated in adjacent cells to these three barbarians.
This is such an incredible despairing, horrific atrocity, which should have been 110% prevented if those responsible had simply opened their eyes and done their jobs properly!!!
- Nic, singapore
He is in heaven now, god bless him. His guardians will not be, not even for a second.
Everyone, specially Ms Shoesmith should be sacked, and held accountable for the death, they should be brought in front of a judge.
This is disgraceful for the council to now try and defend itself when it had not done so for the child.
- Hafizur Rahman, London
Quick, give all those involved a rise and promotion!
...Well, that's what usually happens, isn't it?
- Brian Clacey, Croydon
What does it take for a social worker to remove a child from harm? From the amount of obvious injuries this poor child had it was clear it was being abused. Do they just turn up for five minutes, take what the adults tell them as gospel and leave without examining the child? Heads should roll for this, but of course they won't. Maybe they should change the law so that social workers have the power to insist on examining a child and be able to remove it from harm immediately. If they fail to act, they should lose their job! I hope the Mother and boyfriend go down for years and rot in hell.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
"The boy's mother, her boyfriend and a lodger were convicted today of involvement in his death but were cleared of murder because it could not be established who struck the fatal blows" - this poor child was murdered, simple as that. All three adults contributed to his death and therefore all should be charged with murder.
Poor little lad never stood a chance.
- Alison Petrie, Cheshunt, Herts
I agree totally with L Taubler, how can the officials keep their jobs when they obviously can't do them!
- Lisa, London,
Saron Shoesmith do the decent thing and resign. You are clearly a typical incompetent useless local government jobsworth. If you were in the private sector you would have been sacked immediately. But that's why you are in local government because you could not get a job in the private sector, well apart from at McDonald's sweeping the floor
- Trevn, Abu Dhabi
This is such a sad and distressing story and I can’t begin to imagine the pain suffered by this baby. Why do we then need to be shown a disturbing graphic image? I think the press coverage leaves very little to the imagination without the image. Personally I think that’s a step to far – what purpose does it serve? It also surprises me that no-one from social services is accountable? Surely there must have been sufficient warning signs during all the visits to prevent this happening?
- Mark, Friern Barnet
What else can anyone expect of "public sector" employees ?
- P I Staker, London
Sack them all they obviously have learnt nothing from the Victoria Climbie case,as for the animals who subjected the baby to the abuse i pray they will suffer the same fate in prison.
- Diane, Wales
The police got it right: "Police had suggested three times that the baby should be taken into care, and sought legal advice, but social workers sent him back to his mother."
Yet: "Sharon Shoesmith, chairwoman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, defended their care of the child." went onto say: "I am satisfied that the action that should have been taken was taken." and added insult to injury by saying"There was not the evidence there for anyone to lose their jobs"
I just don't know how she could have the audacity to say such things in the face of what happened. But as an ancient saying goes: "If you have no shame do what you will".
- W Joseph, London, UK
Stuart of London - blame the public servants yes, but blame more the 3 people involved, plus all their families who knew what was going on, covered it up, made excuses, lied etc.
This story makes me physically sick and I weep at the torment this poor child went through, and the inhumanity of everyone who ignored his situation.
- Fiona, Australia
And who will be the next?
And, incredibly, the officials do not believe they are in anyway culpabable for the appalling neglect, abuse and failure to protect this child. I am livid. Whether we like it or not we ARE our 'brothers' keepers'. It IS our responsibility, in a CIVILISED society to look after the vulnerable. To believe otherwise is surely indicative of a society steeped in evil and deepening decadence.
And, unbelievably, Dr Sabah Alzayyat did not examine this child BECAUSE HE WAS 'miserable and cranky'? What kind of an excuse is that? That was all the more reason to look at him. Sack this doctor. Get rid of these lazy, self-serving and over-paid individuals. What kind of society do we want to perpetuate.
- Yvonne, London , UK
As an ashamed Haringey resident learning of yet more incompetence in this latest case, and having had experience of some of these so-called experts on other child care matters, I have always found that while they are awash with qualifications and can spout the latest politically correct nostrums ad nauseum, they are all lacking one vital ingredient - common sense.
Put them in the private sector, where they would have to earn their money and be accountable to their employer, they wouldn't last half a day.
Shame on you, Sharon Shoesmith!
- Jan, london north
The 'Social workers' involved with this case should face prison sentences for this neglect of duty.In any event they must be suspended without pay.
- Vince London, West London
All three will of course be sterilised to ensure they are never in a position to do this again. Won't they?
Or would that be in breach of their human rights?
- Jimbob, Kensington
This is an unimaginable act of cruelty, savagery and lunacy which deserves the most severe form punishment available. To do this to a child when we see the atrocities in the world is absolutely shocking.
How could they have lived past his cries of anguish, pain and fear? What kind of mother allows this? How could have professionally qualified doctors missed the obvious clinical signs? The carers in the state he was in?
It is utterly and completely unacceptable!
- Philip Gray, London
Dear God, what is happening to the British?
- Hugh Williams, Lexington USA
omg how much pain must the poor poor baby have been in and just to think that the doctor did not notice any thing was wrong how on Gods green planet is this posible a broken back ribs how is it that this baby was not in pain ?
this is so sad i hope the people who did this and allowed this to happen to the defenceless baby will think about how they had played a part in his death
may you all suffer the same fate
- Willow, hampshire
I hope that everyone who had taken a wage home for protecting this child takes time to comtemplate the hand he/she had in this poor child's death.
To have been seen by so many 'professionals' and still have to endure the horrors this baby did defies belief. They are as guilty as the animals that did this.
- Sara, London
These comments show appalling attitudes towards people who work very hard for very little pay. In my opinion social work is a real vocation. It takes several years to train and considering the financial rewards for what is very challenging work, those who choose to do it really have to care. It is terrible when mistakes are made, but it is a real balancing act for social workers, who are criticised by the public for removing children from families on one hand, and also blamed when they don't and something goes wrong. It's important to work out what goes wrong when things like this happen, but equally, but it seems to me that social workers are always given an incredibly hard time by the public whatever they do. There are few out there who are prepared to do this difficult job, we should appreciate those that are.
- Em, London
This is a disgrace. 60 times people went out, and I suppose 60 forms were filled out and 60 boxes ticked. Makes me absolutly sick that no one did anything. Jail terms should be given to some people in social services too.
- Adam, Manchester, UK
This story makes me feel sick to the stomach. How can these evil people have done such a thing. How could social services have missed such a tragic case, what is going on with society?
- Nikki, London
Social worker's are damned if they do and damned if they don't. See M's comment for an example. It's a tough job that most people wouldn't be up to.
The only people responsible for this death are the individuals who attacked the helpless child.
- Bill Withers, bristol
I'm so upset and angry at hearing what this poor little boy has suffered and I can't believe that Haringey have not learned their lessons from Victoria Climbie. Why is no one being sacked? They have clearly failed to do their job properly.
Of course it is the actual perpetrators who deserve the strictest and most severe punishment but of course, as they are not going to be charged with murder, it is unlikely they will get much at all.
- Heidi, London England
There do appear to be serious questions of competency in this case. However I recall reading a few months ago an interview with the main social worker in the Climbie case who felt it may not have been fully understood by the public at large just how dysfunctional Haringey Social Services Department was - and still is. There was gross under staffing, unusually high absenteeism due sickness/stress - especially at middle management level and subsequently a frightening lack of supervision and guidance of junior social workers. It is worrying that another Haringey SW has preferred to remain anonymous this week when talking about the department. I think there needs to be a complete change of management there, and if the case load per social worker goes over the recommended number (12 I think), then Haringey should appeal to the government for more funding to recruit more SWs. I would like people to know that it is only a matter of time before you start hearing more and more distressing stories like this regarding nurses/ healthcare workers. The issues are the same - chronic under staffing, stress, poor management, paperwork overload - it is a rare day that nurses leave their shifts on time, illegal rotas - regularly fewer than 11 hours between shifts without consent... ad infinitum. Brace yourselves. The UK's public/social welfare bodies are being destroyed. Their main resources - staff - are not being listened to. We will all suffer in the end.
- B Williams, Friern Barnet, UK
may these cowards get their comeuppence in prison...
- Maria, london
an absolutely sickening and evil thing to do to a poor baby.
if it cant be proved who delt the final blow to baby p then then they should all be charged with murder
and they should lock 'em up with the usuall inmates and let justice be served.
- Ilkin, breim, norway
Sharon Shoesmith "I am satisfied that the action that should have been taken was taken."
Clearly it wasn't as a baby has been tortured to death. Shame on this woman and shame on everyone else who could have prevented this horror and saved this poor baby's life. Not only have they failed in the worst possible way, they don;t even have the courage to admit their mistakes.
"The child was killed by members of his own family," she said, and not by social services.
"The very sad fact is that we can't stop people who are determined to kill children.
Then what is the point in employing and paying these people?
- Revs, London
Some problems arise due to many social workers being self employed temps. My son worked for a recruitment agency employing these social workers for a while. If they did not like the job they were doing they just moved to another agency or requested to go to another borough. How is that the government allow this to happen? Whey are social workers not all employed by the local councils. Temps have no continuity with their work.
- Vivienne Genchi, Romford Essex
unbelievable... we've come to expect this here in nz where child beating has assumed the mantle of national sport next to rugby but honestly, all those safety nets and still... social work is a profession and its people need to adjust their thinking - and find better minds to take charge.
- Ann, auckland, new zealand
The incompetence of social services is one thing, but mo importantly why do we let sick people like this be part of the human race let alone par of our society. They should be executed... slowly...
Why do we tolerate this... whatever the courts do, one day they will be free, but they should never be!
You want to blame someone then blame yourself and the person next to you because together we allow people to think they can do this and literally go unpunished. Even 25years locked in a prison cell is inadequate by any measure!
Nothing that has happened to them could justify this!
Together we must make change. Don't accept this, demand reprisal! Demand justice!
- Mike, West Mid's
public sector layabouts? what a statement and so typical of some one who is speaking from ignorance,and i bet you will vote for the party that promises the biggest tax cuts.I have worked in council social work departments,and i have worked in the city for private companies in a social work capacity and i can tell u who are the lazy ones and its not those in the under paid council departments, far from it.
- Kev, London
Shame on Haringey Council and all those who were involved in this little todlers death. Social Workers should be removed from their jobs and so should the managers and others who are higher up the ladder. Ms Shoesmith has not got a clue, Maria Ward how blind you are. Dr Sabah Alzayyat should not be allowed to practice in another hospital.
This poor little boy must have gone through Hell while the above mentioned did nothing.
In our own family a short time ago we lost a 34 day old baby after his father killed him. So called Social Services did very little and yet these are the very people supposed to protect the young and innocent.
Little Baby P has a mother who is now protected as well as the boyfriend, NAME & SHAME and let the inmates have their way with them!
- Trevor Askew, Ipswich UK
I can only hope that these excreable excuses for human beings are each given the welcome that they deserve in prison when their sentences are handed down.
- Helen, London UK
How could any decent person responsible for the death of a child possibly not resign at once. This is the problem, nothing is ever anyone's fault. I expect those responsible are on paid sick leave for stress as everybody is being really nasty about them. What an indictment of our society a "telling off" when a child in your care dies.
- Maria Moore, sunningdale uk
Nice to know that the parents and the lodger were not responsible after all for the baby's death, just the police, doctors and social workers.
- P.Robinson, Northants
Everyone involved in this case who could have saved that kid should be fired immediately, including Children's Minister Beverley Hughes. These people cannot be trusted to do their jobs so why should we pay them? If they cared they would resign and let someone competent take over.
- St, London
May God Bless Him and Keep Him.
- Val, East London
None of the so-called professionals involved in this case should ever, ever be allowed to work in the interests of the welfare of children again.
- S Wallace, essex, UK
Are we living in the 21st Century when babies are allowed
to be treated like this. They rely on adults to look after
them. I think the whole system needs to be looked at,
and the people responsible for this babies death to be
given life I mean life imprisoment, or do the same to them
that they did to this poor little baby.
- Maureen Swain, South Ockendon,Essex
Even an untrained eye can see when a mother is abusing her child in the grocery store, when a snotty nosed baby is crying in a pram while their parents are shopping, I see it everyday. How can a trained professional be so blind? How terribly sad.
- Lucy, Reading
I live in the benighted borough of Haringey and need no reminder of how bad their officials are. But one thing in this case really puzzles me. Why can't the name of the victim and the guilty parties be made public? What are these "legal reasons" that overide every concept of natural justice? And why does Haringey and its incompetents always bend over backwards to give the impression that is they who are the injured party? I am sure if the names of the miscreants were made public we might well hear more details than Haringey Council might want made public...
- Bruce Malory, London
You can always depend on mediocrity to be at its very best...This sickening story is the perfect example of why Plato and Socrates disliked the idea of "Democracy" -which is really the election of above average imbeciles by the crazing herd of imbeciles called 'the people' .. What Plato said is a fact: not until a wise sane person becomes a King or until a King becomes wise and sane nothing will ever change...A King would know what to do with the sorry lot of them...and make sure everybody was given a dose of sanity for a change instead of the insanity 'democrasy' has delivered and will continue to deliver because politicians by their very innate nature are stupid cowardly inept...if they are not total cowards and imbeciles why is the world in such a decrepid state? Because our 'democratic' politicians are a sad and sorry lot and all of them deserve to have done to them what was done to that poor baby...
If England had a real King like England had 500 years ago things like this wouldn't happen repeatedly... she would see to it...
- Tom Panaetius, Athens Greece
Further proof that having government-public-sector-layabouts to substitute for the family is the road to hell.
- Anglo, Sussex UK
We've all heard the stories of babies being taken from loving homes by social services because their parents are a bit "slow", so how can the social services justify leaving this baby with a clearly unloving family?
- M, Essex
As a parent this makes me sick. What on earth were all the public services doing? Perhaps if they were not sitting so many exams and actually getting on with their jobs then this might not have happened. God rest this poor childs soul.
- Stuart, London
