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

[LEMisdisappointed]

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 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

What bags me that we will never find out WHY all those adults, who have brains, eyes, supposedly common sense and get paid to look after children didn't see, or I would say didn't not care enough to lift thier bum and act. Look at all other stories, the news would tell the first bit, but NEVER follow up. The only think we will see and hear: the lessons must be learn ... Blah blah blah. I think there are so many people who were touched by this story, that every detail must be public. We get punished if we do not pay our taxes, speeding etc, why people who are responcible for us, our children get out of the hook so easily. I just feel they have a statement they wrote many years ago for cases like that,and they read it every time with small changes..... Poor little baby, God bless you, shame to us all who do not take actions when they should.

agree LEMis, if this can happen here, such terrible neglect and sufferings over a long period of time. a child starved and beaten here in 2013, known to the system, then something isn't working right.

there's no point in running safeguarding courses and having all of these things in place if a child can still die.

it wasn't a one off beating or killing with no preamble this was long drawn out suffering with witnesses.

his bastard patents killed him but everyone failed him.

They were on the radar and he may have been about to be removed for the neglect and injuries and weight-loss but nobody could predict that the poor child was about to be beaten to death.

This could happen to any child if they happen encounter a murderer.

You can't remove children until proper investigations have been made or this would clog up the system, lead to gross miscarriages of justice and potentially leave actual victims of abuse wide-open to more of it because guidelines haven't been followed.

I agree with scottishmummy

MRsD, you don't need to defend yourself here.

the comment was ridiculous.

Some posters don't seem to understand the case. MrsD is trying to explain and getting a hard time for it.

The school knew he was very thin/ hungry. He's mother had an excuse for it, backed my medical professionals! WTF were the school/ Teachers meant to do?!

If you have a child in your class and are told "X has a disorder which means he is very thin" which is backed up by doctors and a manipulative, murdering parent, as a teacher what can you do??

I feel so sorry for this teachers/ school. I don't know how I would ever get over something like this happening to a child in my class.

To think that some people desperate to adopt are refused on spurious grounds. To think that some people are unable to conceive and yet there are parents like this in the world.

I know lots of people who teach in schools in Coventry (but not this specific school) and I was asking them how the teachers could watch this happen. They couldn't comment on this case but they all said that they are always reporting parents to social services and nothing ever happens (apart from in one or two cases the parents turning up at the school and punching the teachers). They say social services are only interested in keeping children with parents, even if those parents are alcoholics/heroin addicts/violent criminals etc., and that social workers always speak to the parents first and only talk to the child once the parents have had a chance to coach them/terrify them into keeping quiet about the abuse. I also know someone who works in a children's home who says that some children are physically sick at the thought of spending time with their parents but are forced to go through with it because 'it's important to keep families together'. Even so, the idea that this poor boy was starving enough to steal food and the teachers' reaction was to lock food away from him is deeply disturbing. It seems enforcing the rules was more important than being humane.

I think more children need to be taken away from parents. Children are individuals in their own right and not someone else's second, third or fourth chance. Children might need parents but not necessarily the ones they are born with.

they were on the radar and he may have been about to be removed for the neglect and injuries and weight-loss but nobody could predict that the poor child was about to be beaten to death.

Umm well it's not exactly a huge leap is it?!

Giant that's a shocking post. just heartbreaking.

agree with all those defending the teachers 100%. not speaking as a teaher myself but know what a demanding, beautiful and tough job they do we should all support them. They are the lifeline of our children. There will be no-one that will be more saddened, upset and wholly grief stricken than the people that the people who actually did look after Daniel given half the chance.

Why wasn't there a surprise visit by ss? They could've checked upstairs & would've seen the filth this poor innocent child lived in?
They put this boy through living hell. I feel sick just thinking of it... I can't get it out of my head.

wow forget what i just said, haystack i didn't realise they had forbidden him from eating... what school was it?

This has really stunned and angered me . I can't even begin to imagine the fear that little boy must have had.

I just take comfort in the fact he is now in a much better place

It isn't a huge leap but for those reasons on their own I'd have had a third of my class taken into care every year.

Obviously if disclosures were made about cold bath immersion or being fed salt things would have escalated very quickly. Poor Daniel, he was so helpless.

The news about this little boy is totally heartbreaking. It's just sickening to think there are people who could ever deliberately hurt a child and so impossible to comprehend.

Agree with others who have said the blame lies with the parents. However safeguarding is in place to help children like this, and it's utterly distressing to see a child slip through the net, especially with such horrendous consequences. I don't think it is at all excusable considering all of the relevant recent reports and training in relation to safeguarding.

It's just so awful and sad.
Hopefully when the SCR happens any mistakes made will be highlighted and we will all be able to learn from it.

(His, not he's*)

I think that's clutching at straws tbh. The TA said that his clothes were falling off him, his hair was straw like and he was pale. He was rooting around for any food he could find. Surely, anybody could see what is actually happening before their eyes - I.e a child is starving to death. Whether they suspected abuse or not there was a health problem that needed dealing with quickly, the Mother's inaction in dealing with the weight loss should've been an initial cause for concern. These are trained 'professionals' apparently, how would you be fobbed off with the Mother's response of an 'insatiable appetite' that she couldn't satisfy but at the same time only provide half a sandwich for packed lunch. The physical evidence was in front of the teaching staff of the food they provided plus he was rooting around for leftovers. Her comments and the evidence don't add up. You don't have to be a 'professional' to realise that. Equally, the School Support Worker who went to advise on Daniel's toliet problems had never even met the child she was advising on. How is that doing everything they could to establish the facts? The fact that the Mother was not keen on arrangements to improve his attendance should have been worrying but again it seems it was not. Having read the news articles it seems there was a serious lack of communication between the staff at the school IMO.

There was no mention of his Mother saying that she had his weight loss looked at by a health professional but he was wasting away. Any normal Mother would want to address the problem of his emaciation but she didn't - that should've rung alarm bells. This coupled with the fact that despite his 'insatiable appetite' she only initially gave him half a sandwich for his packed lunch. If your child has an 'insatiable appetite' and he is loosing weight rapidly do you give them half a sandwich for lunch? I don't see how the school missed this contradictory behaviour.

By all accounts social services don't seem to have been informed of any of this odd behaviour. Even if they where why would you not chase this up to a conclusion that was satisfactory- I.e something was being done about his emaciation. It is evidently not enough to ring the Doctor and leave it at that. This boy was starving Ffs- what was happening to rectify something so critical straight away!

Was there no question mark over whether he needed vitamins and supplements or just more food. Why was the paediatrician not told about the background, i.e that he was given half a sandwich for packed lunch? Equally, they cancelled three appointments prior to seeing the peadetrician when he prescribed supplements. Why was the information not communicated to social services. This child was starving and the Mother cancelled 3 appointments, why was this not known about?

If you work in CP it must be understood that manipulation of the truth by criminals is inevitable, so why the heck is a procedural process so simplistic and seemingly the antithesis to an 'investigation'?

I think another problem is that these days schools are afraid to be sued and teachers are afraid to be sacked over the slightest thing. I know in my day a teacher wouldn't think twice about giving food to a hungry child but nowadays their are so many health, cultural, religious and ethical issues around food teachers must be afraid to put a foot wrong.

Apparently a doctor was consulted, lied to and a diagnosis made. Doctor is always given more credence than a lowly teacher. I hope the serious case review holds this person as accountable as the teacher and s.w have been.

I think it is very easy in hindsight to say people should have noticed and what they should have done! the problem was the the lowlifes managed to cover it up. they lied repeatedly and got the sibling to lie. and they lied to everyone!

This is a shocking horrific case but cases like this are few and far between and hopefully lessons can be learnt. But out whole society is based on believing what people say - and sadly in this case we shouldn't have done!

I wonder if things would be better if the procedure was for schools to contact police directly rather than contact social services first? Social services are useless and seem to have their own 'keep families together at all cost' agenda. If we suspected someone was torturing an adult we would call the police, so why should children be fobbed off with social services and the lack of protection they offer?