Will lessons really be learnt after this tragic child abuse case?

[Tolkienista]

The horrific case of baby Preston Davey sickeningly abused by his adoptive parents (a teacher and his partner) concluded in a guilty verdict in court yesterday.
The details are too traumatic to contemplate the awful end of this child's life.
Once again the age old phrase "lessons will be learnt" has been quoted and I have to say, will they?

I know life is extremely complicated & I'm in no doubt that the killer of Preston was manipulative, cold hearted and extremely secretive in covering up his abuse of this defenceless little child.
I guess that because abuse generally takes place behind closed doors, child abuse will sadly always be a part of our society.

Utterly utterly tragic.

The fact that they had changed his name should have been a red flag. It is very strongly discouraged in adoption because it is often one of the only things the child 'has' that was theirs before they were adopted.

What powers do you think Social Workers have? If the parent/carer refuses to let them in, they have no right of entry. The only thing they can do is call the police, who also have no right of entry unless there are legitimate concerns for the child's immediate welfare. It isn't enough that they aren't being cooperative.

Of course some social workers will be scared of parents - they aren't always pleasant people. They use fear and intimidation to block access. They use their pets to intimidate. Social workers visit mostly alone and their only 'protection' is a phone call to the office to say that their next call is 106 Nutbeam Avenue and they expect to be there an hour.

The man showed a video of Preston pulling a hard object onto his head to explain the bruises initially. It was only later that they realised the video was 12 days old.

I took my DD to hospital with a head that needed to be glued. She walked into A&E and said 'My Mum cracked my head!', and I just nodded and said 'It's true.' It was a pure accident - she was in a sensory meltdown, I was trying to pull her out of it by playing the 'kissy game' (I say I'm going to kiss her, she moves away...it used to make her laugh and break the meltdown), but unfortunately she had stood on the seat of the sofa and jerked her head backwards and smacked it on the corner of the window reveal.

Nobody said anything or worried because what she said and what I said was consistent, and the wound was consistent with smacking her head against a wall corner. It could have been something else, but there was no reason to think it was.

If you see a video of a small child looking wobbly against a toy, then pulling a big block off the top of it, and it smacking them in the forehead hard enough to make them fall over, you'd likely look at the bruise and think 'fair enough.'

The broken arm story was plausible. It happens. Not good, but parents have accidents and if it is a true accident it isn't assault, so again, reasonable explanation, prompt treatment sought, parent seems contrite and remorseful, child otherwise well and looks cared for.

The toy falling on his head in the video it didn’t look like it hit hard enough to cause a bruise and it was unlikely to have hit in the right place to where the bruise was. I just can’t help being sceptical I had multiple visits from social workers after taking my baby to an and e but I was straight, 16 and had only ever worked in a shop. I know people like myself who had similar experiences and can’t get my head around three visits in such a short space of time including a broken arm and nothing was done about it.

I think they were trusted more because varley was a teacher and also played into the flamboyant gay man stereotype which makes you come across as harmless.

I have suggested there is a need for Social workers to have wider powers. To ensure if they wish to see a child, they get to do so.
If the law is not there to enable that, one needs to be drafted along those lines. Which is what Government is for. To say’ they cannot do that’ is to accept a situation that is unacceptable.

I think with my respect to social workers it can’t be easy to attract people to the job, huge work load, huge responsibility, with nature of the job it must be soul destroying at times and then there’s little ressources.
It might be a vocation but how many would want to do it?

Exactly.

I’ve just read an utterly awful story on another page. Complete lack of failure by social workers and police even as this story is in the news. People have advised the person to go to their MP as a poor woman has been tearing her hair out trying to help a child and no one is doing anything about it. So no lessons are not being learnt.

Single men are also allowed to adopt. I think any household with only men should not be allowed to adopt, at least not extremely young preverbal children.
Reminds me of this thread. I agree with the OP here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/feminism/5154823-single-man-adopting-a-girl-with-downs-syndrome

What story? Can you link?

The issue isn't gay men, it's men in general.

Single men also can adopt, I thuink this is also questionable.. I don't think male only adoption should be allowed, or at least not with very young children.

I agree paid surrogacy should not be allowed either.

Doubt it, nothing has been learned from all the previous cases.

Yes, this.

I did a thread under a different name a while ago about male nursery workers and theire were many responses agreeing but many calling me a misandrist. Even though I made clear that the issue is not that 'most men will abuse' but that there's evidence predators seek out this sort of job and unlike teaching, say, children cannot report abuse.

Terrifying he was even a safeguarding lead..I feel awful for the students who had contact with him. Hopefully none were abused..

Of course he was a safeguarding lead. Perfect cover.

The issue isn't gay people, it's men of any sexuality. Men are much more likely to abuse than women, unrelated men more so.

This.

Unbelievable. This has to change! How can that be below the threshold??

And there were a couple of A&E visits, one of which the nurse said that the explanation didn’t match the injury (but was overruled by the doctor)

• that is important. Why was the nurse overruled?

Others apart from SW made serious mistakes. Varley said disturbing things to his sister & a work colleague about Preston : they should both have flagged this up.

I've been reading about lessons and how they must be learnt since Maria Colwell in 1973. Forgive me if I don't hold out much hope.

He said in a jokey way to his sister Preston was dead meat over texts but I’ve known loads make jokes like that. The work colleague he told in person he was thinking of drowning or suffocating Preston.
No idea why the work colleague didn’t say anything.

To be clear, a doctor cannot 'overule' anybody else's safeguarding concern. Rule number 1 of safeguarding that you are taught in training whether you're a lead consultant or a receptionist is that if you have a safeguard concern your responsibility is for you to report it. The responsibility lies with the safeguarding team then to assess the concern. The same goes for the general public. Anyone can report to social services.

If you work with vulnerable people in any capacity you have training on a yearly basis which makes this very clear

Those are very unusual things to say about your child, aren't they?

I can't remember even joking about my children that I would like to drown or suffocate them.

Ok @Comeinsideforacupoftea, the reports I have seen say that a report was made based on the injuries in A&E and the nurse noted that the explanation didn’t seem to tally with the injuries. But it went nowhere after a consultant said that there wasn’t cause for concern.

Usually what happens is that if there is an unexplained injury it should trigger a full child protection medical which a paediatrician would undertake. Usually the child would then have bloods and a complete skeletal survey (x-ray) I'm not sure if this happened in this case.

I am an adopter and am shocked that this happpened whilst this baby was still effectively under the care of the LA. Our Dd bruised herself (total accident) and something else came up that was totally out of our control and both times the CPS were all over us and scrutinised a lot more heavily than they would have a biological parent.