Star Hobson verdict in

[Lougle]

Savannah Brockhill Guilty of murder. Frankie Smith Guilty of causing or allowing death.

Just seen the latest video footage of Star. So many bruises on her face and ear. 7 days later she was gone. I'm horrified.

I genuinely can not understand how any "professional" could look at those facial bruises and think "accidental" really?? REALLY???

I'm in disbelief, poor child the pain and suffering she experienced. 🥺

@CoedenNadolig

I genuinely can not understand how any "professional" could look at those facial bruises and think "accidental" really?? REALLY???

I'm in disbelief, poor child the pain and suffering she experienced. 🥺

And people have the audacity to say this is a case of underfunding. Star's own family predicted she'd be killed by the two of them. They had so much evidence. It's just too much, in a few months we'll have another thread of another child.

If anyone wants to read the full transcript of the Judge’s comments you can find them here;

www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/R-v-Brockhill-Smith-sentencing-151221.pdf

I found her comments to be balanced.

@CoedenNadolig

I genuinely can not understand how any "professional" could look at those facial bruises and think "accidental" really?? REALLY???

I'm in disbelief, poor child the pain and suffering she experienced. 🥺

The bruises were seen by a paediatrician who obviously accepted the story given. There’s a lot of social worker bashing going on on this thread, but nobody has mentioned the paediatrician.

I'd say peads Dr/consultant falls under "professional" personally.

I agree. Social workers have dangerously high case loads and are juggling many many cases of high risk vulnerable children.

This shouldn’t have been missed but for every child who dies there are many more being treated just as badly that social workers are struggling to have the time to get to. The work load is so high people are leaving the profession because it’s so badly funded they can’t do anything to make a difference- the work load is shared out amongst those that are left until they burn out and leave and so it goes on.

This should not have been missed though. The bruising was so obvious regardless of any cover up.

It’s strange on this thread though to see more blame on social workers than Frankie. You don’t need a high IQ to know that someone battering your child is wrong.

Interesting to see that the "low IQ" gambit was fortunately rejected by the judge - note especially the first sentence: "Nor do I accept that your low IQ or unusual compliance affected your function or excused your behaviour and conduct. I had the opportunity of seeing you give evidence over a number of days. During the course of that questioning you held your own under what must have been enormous pressure. Just as you held your own in the taped conversation of 20/21 July 2020 which the jury heard and in which you were as threatening and as abusive towards Savannah Brockhill as she was to you"

Interesting too that the killer was taken out of school at the age of ten. I understand this is quite usual among her community, but can't help wondering what her future (and more importantly Star's) might have been had she stayed and been able to absorb more development opportunities

It’s strange on this thread though to see more blame on social workers than Frankie. You don’t need a high IQ to know that someone battering your child is wrong.

I do feel empathy for FS in as much as her child is dead because of her terrible choices - I believe she does regret her actions now. I don't think she foresaw Star's death. She will live with her callous behaviour and inaction for the rest of her life.

But the judge took into consideration her immaturity and learning difficulties and decided that she should have done more to protect Star but she chose not to rather than that she was unable to. I fully accept her position. That's the whole point of the legal system.

The bruises were seen by a paediatrician who obviously accepted the story given. There’s a lot of social worker bashing going on on this thread, but nobody has mentioned the paediatrician.

You're right to an extent. The paediatrician got off lightly too. However you can't eradicate evil scumbag parents, they'll always exist. That's the job of the social worker first and foremost, to stop them harming the child.

At the end of the day, that's the main thing as a society we can do to protect kids, is have professionals who do their actual job

To make it clear, I'm not the type who blames those in charge (social workers, police) over perpetrators. Just explaining why the spotlight is on the child experts

This sums it up I think…

@planteen

The bruises were seen by a paediatrician who obviously accepted the story given. There’s a lot of social worker bashing going on on this thread, but nobody has mentioned the paediatrician.

You're right to an extent. The paediatrician got off lightly too. However you can't eradicate evil scumbag parents, they'll always exist. That's the job of the social worker first and foremost, to stop them harming the child.

At the end of the day, that's the main thing as a society we can do to protect kids, is have professionals who do their actual job

To make it clear, I'm not the type who blames those in charge (social workers, police) over perpetrators. Just explaining why the spotlight is on the child experts

Yep, and when you send the child for a medical and the doctors say there’s no evidence of non-accidental injury, what then can the social workers do?

We will see in the serious case review what went on and where the faults lay, but it doesn’t change the structural problems which exist in our society which are huge barriers to professionals being able to do their jobs. More is needed to minimise these tragedies, albeit nothing can ever entirely prevent them.

A pp said on this or one of these threads

A normal parent would never accept or leave a bruise like that in a child.
You would be horrified. Seek medical attention immediately.

I think if sw can't be trusted to make these calls they need to ask, have you sought medical help and if they say no, big red flag.
And get checked (even then medics make mistakes)

I would be interested to know which bruises the peadarictooan saw and what context the peadarictooan had.

@mydogisthebest

Will any future children be taken away from her though? They messed up so thoroughly here who knows what they might do in the future.

Also going into care is not a great outcome for many children. She should not be allowed to have any more children

I agree. Social services are so incompetent I very much doubt this will ever happen.

I found this case so distressing to hear about, along with the case of little Arthur. I'm not a mother and don't want kids (I'm not maternal) but hearing about these children's final moments and weeks where they could have been saved but they weren't, has had me in sobs. It is utterly heartbreaking to think what on earth would have been going in their minds when the people who were supposed to protect them were out to destroy them.

I believe that both of these children had family who they had stayed with/who would have taken them in if they were allowed. They raised concerns.

These people who treated the children so badly could have passed them onto relatives to look after if they really couldn’t cope/hated the child so much that they treated them lien that - but they chose to keep them close so they could abuse them and ultimately murder them.

I have worked in (officially -yay!) one of the worst schools in the country. There were several cases where mothers fought to get their dcs back from care for purely financial reasons. In one sad case a girl had been doing really well with her foster parents, but was returned to a drug-addict mother with numerous other children. It was very frustrating. The mother just told the school to fuck off when the girl starting failing to turn up to school and her uniform disappeared.

A small percentage of people on this thread have been rather generous to FS. Imagine if this were replicated in the social care system. No wonder a number of children are let down.

The amount of people in this case who tried to stop this all from happening is astounding, Brockhill is such a nasty character that they all must have been horrified when she decided to stick around. How helpless everyone must have felt.

metro.co.uk/2021/12/15/ex-boyfriend-of-star-hobsons-mum-begged-her-to-report-abuse-15775225/?ito=article.amp.share.top.facebook&fbclid=IwAR3c2aIZYMhQ-Q5BnP3VM5S_Q7CSH6xsss62UYKF3LHOfdU1SRk825bHgoE

JeffThePilot

You're right but it does sound to me like there was negligence on both parties, sw and paediatrician. Sounds like the grandfather or great grandfather called up and was told preemptively they weren't able to do anything. Despite the fact that they had all the pictures- I mean forget the doctor, if you have historic pictures that should be enough

System needs to be seriously reviewed, I'm baffled why this hasn't happened already

@planteen

JeffThePilot

You're right but it does sound to me like there was negligence on both parties, sw and paediatrician. Sounds like the grandfather or great grandfather called up and was told preemptively they weren't able to do anything. Despite the fact that they had all the pictures- I mean forget the doctor, if you have historic pictures that should be enough

System needs to be seriously reviewed, I'm baffled why this hasn't happened already

Money.

The government don’t want to spend the money that would be needed.

It’s not money though is it, both the doctors and SW’s are being paid to due their job. They just aren’t doing it diligently enough or don’t seem to care. It is so obvious that Star’s facial injury was caused by a punch to the face. Ffs you don’t even see injuries like that in a boxing ring. They just need to do their jobs.

Both Star and Arthur were so badly let down ...both could’ve been saved but they were failed !! Makes my blood boil ...the sentences should be increased so those involved never leave prison ....a child lost their life in horrific circumstances in both these cases!! Shane on all who could’ve prevented this ...

I have family member who works in schools in pretty deprived areas, schools for kids with behavioural (generally violent) issues (so has seen a lot and is very experienced in working with ‘problem’ families and students).

He told me that he once had to beg social services on a Friday to intervene because he genuinely believed that a child in his class would not survive if left in her home environment. He’s seen some terrible home environments (he used to have to do home visits to make recommendations) and been threatened (even death threats - luckily he is unscarable), so I wonder if some of the professionals who looked into these cases were just bloody naive or scared off?

I read today that when FS went to collect Star, to take her home after the extended stay with her grandparents, that little Star screamed with horror when she realised she was going home with FS and leaving the grandparents. Poor, poor child and poor, poor grandparents. This part of the story chilled me, imagine how terrified that little girl was.