EDITED for legal reasons...
Little 'Baby P' suffered so badly that I can barely write about it without feeling sick. He suffered at the hands of his mother and a man who shall remain nameless so that an upcoming trial is not jeapordised.
I am incensed, beyond angry, beyond disbelief, that these social workers and health professionals can ALL have fucked up so royally. What? I even heard a professor of social science or somesuch going on about how social workers did not need to have any common sense, that child abuse is not common sense, so how would common sense help? What in hell's name is this man on about? I was staggered at his crass stupidity and smugness and am blown away by Haringey Social Services, a bunch of self-centred, self-congratulatory, self-obsessed, self-important idiots who failed to have any sense, common or not.
They issued an apology this morning. Bless 'em. So that makes it OK, does it? An apology is worth jack shit UNLESS it is coupled with an assurance that a lesson has been learned, a point taken, or a promise to make amends is made. What planet are these people on? Really? They have all kept their jobs. I know many people who have lost their jobs recently due to cutbacks but these incompetent individuals are still in post. The people of Haringey must be thrilled that their council tax is being spent on such quality, especially following the same social services department's failure to stop Victoria Climbie's relatives neglecting her to death.
And why, why, why... can anyone tell me how the people involved have not been charged with manslaughter at the very least? P died at their hands. I don't understand it. So, mummy dearest will get 14 years (will be out in seven) and the others will get who knows what? The sentencing is due on December 15th.
Sixty visits. Sixty visits. Sixty visits! In eight months, P was visited 60 times. But no one spotted a damn thing. He was literally broken and battered. I cannot think of a single adjective strong enough to describe how appalling the details of this boy's treatment was. The little lad was apparently also conditioned to lower his head to the ground when he was approached by one or both men. The mother, surely a case for sterilisation, said her bloke was "a bit of a nutter" but hey, she "loved him and let him do what he wanted". Fucking freak. I didn't really want to swear in this post. There aren't really any words strong enough.
The mother gave birth to a daughter while in prison over the death of P. The fucking social services shits, the liberal idiots who have nothing resembling a brain cell between them, who have no sense of what is right in this world, and what is to be valued, said that the woman should be allowed to have contact with her new child "as it was her human right to bond with her child". Fucking unbelievable. The whole thing is fucking unbelievable. If you don't know what happened, read this and weep. And for God's sake, get angry.
You missed out on the police.
ReplyDeleteCheck the hackney Independent for the quotes from Ch Spt Bates - they are identical to Sharon Shoesmith.
And apparently the police officer involved escaped with no more that 'feedback'.
Also the police are lying, because they claim the reason the case was dropped was because they couldn't establish who inflicted the injuries - yet by their own admission they say they didn't know anything about the boyfriend or the lodger - which leaves only the mother - though reports claim that she blamed the grandmother during one of the investigations and another child during the other
What they are actually saying is that they failed to investigate the allegations.
It will be interesting to see how much the Inspector of Comnstbulary adds to the whitewash.
It's appalling. I can't get my head around it and the seeming total lack of accountability in Peter's case. Sharon Shoesmith has the air of someone keeping her head down, doesn't she? The press will dig and dig and dig, so I just hope the facts do come out and the right heads roll.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the part about her having another baby - that is ridiculous. That baby should not have any contact with her and should be adopted by a couple who really want a baby and hopefully the child can grow up without needing to know about the hell that she came from.
ReplyDeleteGreat post - It is an appalling case and it is wrong that so many of our public services were involved with a remit to intervene but just didn't!
ReplyDeleteAs a public servant (but not in children's services although I have worked alongside them on some of my projects) I find the whole policy and 'working by consensus' set up, which largely came as a result of the Victoria Climbie case to encourage different agencies to work together, not only lacking the 'teeth' to actually address cases such as these at the earliest opportunity and efectively but also accountability due to the complex layers of reporting management and, unfortunately politics.
Its too easy for one agency to delegate responsibility to another to deal with it and then not check that its been done.
Sanddancer, Scotland Yard had to intervene to stop the mother, Mummy T, from having contact with her new baby. Thank God someone saw sense and said no to the prize morons at Haringey. They do not have the first clue what 'human rights' are. That baby for one, Peter's new sister, has a human right to be brought up nowhere near that woman who allowed her brother to be killed. How can it not be a no-brainer? These people are thicker than the proverbial pile of excrement, for sure.
ReplyDeleteNorthern Monkey, hi. It's interesting to read your perspective as someone who has seen the procedure first-hand. I once worked for a local authority and found the layers of bureaucracy abysmal – and that was just in a communications department.
ReplyDeleteWhat's happened is a total fudge. The right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. And it's very convenient when buck-passing. No one can see the ball in the air being thrown from A to B to C to D... to Z. There appears to be no definition of duty or responsibility, no clear lines. Yes, agencies must work together but in a coordinated manner with a strong backbone holding things together. What seems to have happened is a load of loose connections made with people sort of drifting her and there. You are right – no one takes responsibility in such circumstances.
I'm not going to read it now, if you don't mind, I just don't think I'm up to it - call me coward, if you like. I watched some of the coverage on Sky yesterday and was gobsmacked at how everyone passed the buck - no one seemed willing to accept an ounce of responsibility - and add to that what you say here, I am just appalled. This is not the sort of thing one expects in a civilized society. As for the child abuse, well, I don't know, what does one say. People visit the most unimaginable cruelty on children, babies, animals, adults - there are those among us who are nothing more than savage brutes - the thing is, one inevitably has to ask what made them that way and so the circle goes round and round, what Alice Miller calls the poisonous pedagogy.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Vanilla, about the cycle of abuse. But I also think that that explanation serves as an excuse for the lazy and the inhumane. Some in the same situation will rise above it and extract themselves; others will simply shrug their shoulders and happily wear a cloak of 'downtrodden and underclass'. Humans are capable of the greatest kindnesses and the greatest cruelty. It's a choice.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, MD, it is a choice - some will rise above abuse and break the cycle and others will just stay in it. I often wonder what it is that inspires one choice vs the other - a degree of enlightenment, an older soul? I don't have the answers but it begs some interesting questions.
ReplyDeleteAnd here it is, at last, just as we all knew, the monster "boyfriend" raped the little girl while this slag did nothing. The Irish grandmother is to appear on Panorama next week. She is going to say that she could do nothing to prevent the rape and killing of her grandchildren. She will be paid for her contribution to the programme. I am crying while I write this. These little innocent children had nobody who would help them. What a world to be born into! A world of suffering without anyone to protect them.
ReplyDeletePretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts
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