Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be incredulous that this little boy wasn't protected (warning - distressing news coverage)

251 replies

LEMisdisappointed · 31/07/2013 21:11

news article

I am so angry - yet another child tortured and murdered by his "parents". The school had written comments in the "concerns" book, yet still this poor little mite was starved and beaten systematically over a period of time. Do professionals become numb to childrens needs? Does no one check FFS????

My DD is a healthy child (thankfully) and never taken to the GP as she hardly ever gets sick, the only times she has been in the past few years are for injuries - nothing serious apart from biting through her tongue (ouchie), another time she burnt her hand and more recently a horse trod on her toe. The nurse commented that she was "accident prone" and asked if we had a social worker Hmm Fair enough actually, although DP was offended, although no follow up action taken. It looks worse i guess because they are the only notes on her medical record since she was a baby (shes 8 now). Everyone talks about "safeguarding" but it appears that they are just paying lip service to it and children are suffering either through unintentional neglect or willful cruelty.

I don't understand, after the whole Baby P thing that this can still slip through the net Angry

OP posts:
Joanne279 · 31/07/2013 21:19

Ooohhhhhh don't get me started. Just read the news and actually stroked the poor little lads face on my phone and told him he was in a better place.

So far today I've read on the news about 12 yr old girls bring raped, this poor lad and child abuse scandals!

WHAT THE F**K IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE!!!

I'm livid that in this case apparently the teachers knew he was hungry!!!!! Well take the poor lad to the canteen and give him a meal, don't stand there afterwards and admit you saw a problem and stood by and watched!!!

It made me feel sick to read a statement from the police to say he was beaten, left in his room on 1st march. Cold. Hungry and dying all alone. He wasn't found til 3rd march. My stomach turns for this poor little soul.

Wherever you are Daniel, you are in a far better place and no one can hurt you anymore darling x x x x x

Donnadoon · 31/07/2013 21:20

YANBU I've followed this story from the start and wept for this beautiful boy. Don't know what the answer is :(

thebody · 31/07/2013 21:23

just simply dreadful. I work in a reception class and a child stealing food from others lunch boxes coupled with extreme thinness and bruises would be a massive massive red flag.

we have filled out 'cause for concern'sheets for far less red flags than this.

I will be quite glad to hear that these vile animals are punished properly by other inmates.

Original poster
LEMisdisappointed · 31/07/2013 21:23

This seems to be a failure by the school and doctors? Were social services even aware?

OP posts:
neunundneunzigluftballons · 31/07/2013 21:24

There is a special place in hell for that child's mother and step father. What is wrong with some people?

Original poster
LEMisdisappointed · 31/07/2013 21:25

thebody what is the thing with the "cause for concern" sheets? How are they reviewed and courses of action decided upon - surely this would have been reported??

OP posts:
Wannabestepfordwife · 31/07/2013 21:26

I've only just stopped crying I had to hold my dd after reading about it.

I don't understand how there were so many opportunities to save him but nothing was picked up on.

I feel so sorry for his siblings and hope they get the help they deserve watching their mum torture their sibling like that and no one trying to protect him is going to leave serious scars.

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 31/07/2013 21:27

I think they should be sent back to gaol in their home country. Won't be as comfortable as gaol here.

I cried when I saw the news.

Didn't the mother tell the school they were not to give him food as he had some sort of eating disorder..... wicked woman. I think she should be forcibly sterilised, and for good measure without anaesthetic.

Eyesunderarock · 31/07/2013 21:29

Compulsory sterillisation for both parents.
More teeth for SW and teachers and CP officers, and more backing when they need to use them rather than the shrieks of 'Evil SWs breaking up families'
Doctors to be more involved with the active protection of children from abuse.

QOD · 31/07/2013 21:29

And yet when we had our surrogate baby, we had a social worker, she visited us, our parents, our surrogate, our surrogates family, us on a couple of surprise visits both before and after the birth
The midwife in charge of the ward after the birth blocked me from visiting my friend because she wanted her to have a chance to change her mind (I was already in possession, if you like, of the baby). We had court case we had surprise midwife and health visitor for friggin ages and yet we were 3 working adults, with no history of depression or social need, no one was in need of money or support ... Fucks me right off that that money wasn't spent on that dear little boy

I Wonder if he was a smelly "naughty" boy because of the way he was dragged up and that went against him in school? Maybe he didnt get play dates and the attention a nice polite shiney little boy would have got?

PictureMeInThese · 31/07/2013 21:30

I heard the school put locks on the bins after he was caught stealing food from them. Sad

propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS · 31/07/2013 21:31

Yanbu. It totally beggars belief that no one noticed a child being starved to death. I cannot understand how no one came to his aid. God rest his poor, little soul Sad

greeneyed · 31/07/2013 21:32

It's too much to comprehend the poor wee soul. I'm not religious and don't believe in the death penalty but I could pray for him and gladly see his carers hanged. Heartbreaking

maddening · 31/07/2013 21:33

This case is so tragic - it is sickening and heart wrenching to think of what Daniel went through and I doubt even the most vivid imagination wouldn't touch on the true horror.

RIP Daniel :( x

BrianButterfield · 31/07/2013 21:45

People did notice and act on it - education welfare officers visited the home, his doctor was contacted by the school, people did act and did do something. The parents lied repeatedly and it was them who killed him.

Do you know how many child protection issues get raised in every school every year? Teachers DO career, believe me, we do care desperately but we're not talking about the odd kid every so often. My school makes over a hundred CP referrals a year - a normal school in a normal area. These kids are noticed, concerns are passed on, they are talked about and cared about...it's not like teachers shrug their shoulders and say 'oh well', we do give a damn but once you've followed the procedures what else are you going to do? Feed every hungry kid? There's probably two or three in every lesson I teach. There are kids living in houses I've heard described as 'like a hoarder's house on TV' who SS couldn't do anything about - I can't clean their houses or sort their parents' lives out. I get paid to teach and to report concerns, which I do. Teachers don't have the time or the capability to solve these problems themselves and you have no idea what happened in this school.

There is no way everyone went home every night thinking everything was OK.

Goldenbear · 31/07/2013 21:45

I heard on the Radio that he had TWO black eyes a week before his death and the TA described him as looking very thin so why was the action taken so minimal?

Original poster
LEMisdisappointed · 31/07/2013 21:49

"eyesunderarock" i totally agree with you. As i said, my DDs records must look really dodgy seeing as the only records on there are for injuries - yes they all had explanations but I would not have been offended to have a visit from SS actually, i'd rather that than something like that be missed.

OP posts:
Slinkysista · 31/07/2013 21:49

I can't stop thinking about this little boy, what he went through is unimaginable. I'm sure they'll trot out all the usual nonsense about inquiries, reviews, changes in procedure but really how could they not see there was something desperately wrong here!! Stealing food from other children, eating dirty food off the ground, eating beans that were
Meant for a science project!! All that happened and yet this poor baby was just left to those animals!
I hope the parents rot in the depths of hell that goes without saying but I really want to know why this little boy was so let down by everyone!!

Hassled · 31/07/2013 21:51

Brian - I know that everything you say is true but it's still just not enough. Otherwise are we really no further forward than we were with Victoria Climbie or Baby P? Have we really learned nothing at all? I think the Serious Case Review will make shocking reading.

Nancy66 · 31/07/2013 21:52

The child was skeletal at the time of death - surely that would have been noticed when he got changed for PE lessons?

I accept that one isolated incident might not be enough but:

scavenging for food in bins
black eyes and a bruised body
a skeletal frame
lame excuses from parents

I agree that the mother and boyfriend killed him and nobody else but his teachers and other authorities badly, badly let him down.

Original poster
LEMisdisappointed · 31/07/2013 21:52

But brian, why then did this little boy die? Surely the welfare officer didn't just buy the lies? And yes, aren't free school dinners there to feed children who's parents can't afford school dinners and at least they get one meal a day? I am not blaming the teachers - but there was absolutely a failing in the system that did not protect this little boy, yes his parents killed him but the fact remains that this boy was failed by those who should have protected him.

OP posts:
Goldenbear · 31/07/2013 21:55

This boy was murdered, that was the end result of the 'professionals' action Brian.

Joanne279 · 31/07/2013 21:56

Brian.

Feed every child? Yes we should!!! If I was a teacher at this school I would have brought him food from my own house!

A child was starved to death and you talk about a child like they are little more than a statistic! There might be 3 hungry kids in each class but that doesn't make it acceptable!!

People with the power to do something need to pull there finger out and DO it rather than complaining about red tape and asking for a form to be filled in first.

Rant over.

Slinkysista · 31/07/2013 21:59

I'm sorry Brianbutterfield that just won't do, so the concerns were passed on!! Is that it? No follow up just assume someone else is doing something about it??
I'm a teacher too and I know how the system works but really if a child was starving to death with bruises and black eyes on a regular basis I really don't think that i'd just content myself with the notion that I'd passed on concerns! I'm questioning the whole system not just the teachers by the way!

BrianButterfield · 31/07/2013 22:00

People are blaming the teachers though - for all we know they called SS every day and got told they'd looked into it. If the parents don't claim FSM, the child can't have them - the meal isn't there to be had. Yes the system is shit but it doesn't mean nobody in the system gives a damn. His teacher will think 'if only'...but if only what? She could have fed him a three course meal every day and they would still have killed him, she couldn't take him home, it's not up to her to go round and search his house (and apparently it all seemed respectable anyway downstairs).

Hungry, dirty, skinny kids...we see them all the time. There's so many children out there, the system can't cope.

Swipe left for the next trending thread