Former teacher guilty of sexually abusing and murdering baby boy he wanted to adopt - CPS

Don’t worry he won’t last long in prison the screws will turn a blind eye as he is attacked. Let’s hope he’s tortured to death. That poor beautiful little boy. 😢

I don’t want to read ever increasingly graphic descriptions of what people would like to happen to these men in prison either. Doesn’t mean I’m not appalled at what happened but I think a more useful discussion is about what could have prevented this and what could change.

Personally I’m not sure, I don’t have a lot of knowledge or experience in this area but talking to a friend who is a social worker she thought class was an issue. I want to read mumsnetters thoughts about how we can do more to prevent this happening again not everyone out doing themselves to describe in more and more detail the horrors they’d like to be inflicted on these two individuals in prison. It’s not productive and I’m mindful of the collateral damage that prison assaults cause in terms of those who have to deal with them and the financial burden to the state in investigating and prosecuting.

There's a lot of evidence that men biologically unrelated to children (step fathers, new boyfriends etc) are often a major risk to children's safety. I don't think there's the same evidence about women. So uncomfortable as it may be, this case and available data might suggest that two men biologically unrelated to a child should be viewed with much greater caution and monitored in more depth than where there's a woman involved?

That's if society prioritises the welfare of children above all other demands of course.

I've always been a two men should be allowed to adopt children person but not anymore.

I see, thank you apologies, I didn’t realise.

Presumably with something proportional in size to what was used on the baby. Evil men.

I think they were explained fairly easily though (of course being professionals will have helped.)

I really wish there was some way to guarantee the thing that has already happened won’t happen but I’m not sure there is.

@LittleMerrymaid i will continue to post where I see fit and grant you the courtesy of the same.

I’m not sure it’s that gay dads are seen as ‘lovely’, it’s more that it’s assumed that having been through an extensive vetting process for adoption in the first place that any injuries or illness are benign (and they can be.)

It doesn’t help that there’s a lot of misinformation about this case as well: there’s been a lot posted that either isn’t true or could be true but isn’t proven (there was a claim that they’d put photographs on the dark web for example) so it quickly gets complex and confusing.

As I understand it, Preston went to hospital three times. I believe two of these occasions were with illness and one with an injury, which had a plausible explanation. Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

The 'safeguarding lead' in a school thing is not uncommon and has come up in a few cases recently. Just a new way for some abusers to try to make themselves untouchable/immune from questioning, among other things (and I suppose, see for themselves where the gaps may be). Ugh, the pair of them make me utterly sick, but very glad the jury came to a unanimous decision. Such a harrowing case to sit through.

I'm heartbroken for Preston's foster mother. She knew something was up, tried to flag it and was handwaved away. I'm sure the serious case review will throw up some key recommendations; Manchester Evening News is saying there were 9 specific points in the timeline where it looks like something could have been done and wasn't, but we'll see. As is so often the case, much is to do with people picking up the pattern and joining the dots properly.

No doubt a lot of us on this thread have seen this before, but there is an excellent (if not very pleasant) US book by Anna Salter called Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists and Other Sex Offenders which is quite eye opening about the planning so many pdfs do, what they look for, and the lengths they'll go to, sometimes over years, to get access.

The foster mum raised concerns at least twice in those 115 days.

Unfortunately they weren't specific enough for social workers to do anything about it. She said she felt they were hiding something and she had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, but had no more than that.

I'd still like to think that would be sufficient for the social workers to take a closer look though - particularly when there was very strong evidence of abuse.

I have just seen this news in The Guardian and felt physically sick.

I had to stop reading, the poor little boy.

Horrific

Im not claiming to be an expert but don't think hindsight was needed here. I have seen multiple reports where Preston was taken to hospital 3 separate occasions and bruising was noticed on all 3 visits by different people. At least one report to police was made. Newly adoptive parents with multiple reports of bruising on a baby, that had never been in hospital, never mind the bruising, should have triggered a safeguarding response but didn't. Skin colour and sexual orientation shouldn't influence what happens.

I think society has been groomed to see gay dads as "lovely". But they are still MEN.

The red flags were obvious, and if it had been Preston’s bio mum and som random guy, there’d have been questions asked and things done. But the red flags were dismissed because they were professional men and because the half-witted social workers were falling over themselves to coo over two men looking after a baby. Yes, that sounds harsh of me but I bet it’s true.

There was another case a while ago which shared features with this, and some idiot had written about what a great job ‘dad’ was doing - just before ‘dad’ killed their adopted child.

It’s sickening to look at Preston’s dear little face smiling and to think about what these men did.

TBH I haven't seen much on this on MN the last year or so. I don't really look at the Parenting topic very often. So far as I can see it has only been discussed on the Parenting thread and FWR when I think it should be much more widely discussed. It's not a niche topic and I think as a society we should be more aware of these issues. We need open honest discussions.

I can't understand how the abuse was missed time and time again. Over 20 years ago dh and I adopted a little boy via our local county council and we were constantly checked up on all through the adoption process. We were given our own social worker and had regular visits and meetings held in our home. Our son was 3 when we adopted him and would have spoken up if he hadn't been happy but poor Preston didn't have the ability to. Like others, I think people were frightened to speak up about the suspected abuse in case they were accused of being homophobic and poor Preston has paid for it with his life.

If we brought back the death penalty for paedos like these we wouldn’t have to waste money and put prison officers’ safety at risk trying to keep them alive. I hope they die scared, tortured by someone bigger than them.

They will be scared every day in prison and I don’t think that they’ll last long in there.

I’ve seen and heard some wicked things in my life but this is truly one of the worst.
May Preston Davey Rest In Peace ✝️

@IwantToRetire i wasn’t sure what the ‘fairly obvious reasons’ why you didn’t go on the parenting thread were, sorry?

I said I hoped the thread wouldn’t fill up with descriptions of what people wanted doing to the men convicted, which I don’t think is unreasonable tbh.

I know we’ve discussed it on the other thread, but the red flags are only red in hindsight. It’s really difficult to say exactly what would have ensured this didn’t happen.

I read about this a while back. I could hardly believe what I was reading, that poor innocent baby. These men are pure evil, I hope they get the same torturous treatment in prison. They should be locked up for life.

Its truly shocking what those animals did to defenceless baby Preston.

My thoughts are also with Prestons initial foster parents. It must be soul destroying to hear what was done to him after he left the love and comfort they had given him

My thoughts are with Prestons biological Mother.

I dont want to take away from Prestons day of justice but so many saw red flags and said nothing and sadly its another example of a child sacrificed so that a responsible adult won't risk being accused of being homophobic / racist / etc etc.