Cruelty to children

[designSalmon]

I’ve just read the absolutely tragic story of Kaylee-Jayde Priest. I’ve just been crying my eyes out this evening over the loss of her very short life. She has hair just like my daughter,

I’d really like some recommendations on charities and organisations that try to make a real difference in cases such as these, so that I may make a donation etc.

Rest in peace little girl, I hope you will find the kindness, love and compassion you so deserve in heaven.

Thank you

Just read another case where the mother (only 18 herself) left her 18 month alone in the flat for nearly 6 days whilst she partied in London.

Killed by the age of 3. Such a horrific experience she had. You wonder when the abuse began as you don't just have a baby and straight away start hitting it. I guess maybe locking it away in a room if crying and more physical once nany is crawling and walking. The problem is that in a lot of families this trauma is inbuilt. They treat children as inconveniences and never speak warmly. Don't seem to use contraception so have too many and can't cope.

Both Victoria Climbe and Baby P were cases under a Labour government in Labour-controlled boroughs

As is our current harrowing case - Logan Mwangi. He is known to SS, under a Labour Govt. Yet another failure for Bridgend Children’s Services to put in their cap.

I fail to see why posters insist that the Tories are to blame for parents/step parents brutally murdering their children?

I’m Welsh and politically homeless.

You wonder when the abuse began as you don't just have a baby and straight away start hitting it.

@sleepyhoglet I’m not sure that’s true sadly

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-48962296

@bluewanda that's so terrible and such a beautiful little baby. These women are clearly far to vulnerable to become parents. Straight after birth and she's doing drugs with someone who isn't even the baby's father.

Tories aren't to blame and its not helpful to suggest they are.

The system seems utterly over whelmed and not got for purpose.
There's are not enough safe guarding measures in carrying homes, there seems to be cultures that cannot be over come in many police forces when girls have tried too speak out. Same with cultures within the ss.
Too many fragmented charities trying to help and too many phone numbers.

There should be one central cracking hot team, call this number. That's it, everywhere... One of special team to investigate and make safe these children.

Feel like midwives or social workers need to check the homes that babies are going to. Seems anyone can have a baby and treat it poorly

41 suspected injuries in three weeks of life!
Three weeks?
Didn't anyone notice their attitudes.

The thing is what number would anyone call? The police to say they think the mum is uncaring? What could trigger help in three weeks?
The peadtrician wanted to do a follow up, at that point he must have had other internal injuries? Maybe full scan as matter of course if injured is suspected?

Sleep the problem is, what could you they do, the home is not great but that's doesn't mean they will be bad parents.

I remember program on poverty and one couple had the baby strapped into the push chair in the house, that always made me feel utterly sick.
They used it to keep him still.

I’ve just read the absolutely tragic story of Kaylee-Jayde Priest. I’ve just been crying my eyes out this evening over the loss of her very short life.

I thought I'd read/lived the intense depravity of childhood abuse but this story has shocked me, I've got emotions on fire and have cried. It's the cruelest, evil, story I've read in years. Such a tragic loss.

I think I remember reading or hearing about an aspect of Daniel P's case, who lived only a few miles from my family. Apparently he kept trying to 'steal' food from the other children's lunchboxes at school, because his parents were starving him. How did that slip under the radar?

Risk factors for abuse include the child being in its first year of life, then goes down each year until age 5 where it stays lower.
It's like if we can truly help and support families through the early years, we could really make a difference.
I think about that statistic about the first year of life. It implies there aren't just 'people who abuse children' otherwise the numbers would be more static. There are people who would abuse a 9 month old who wouldn't abuse a 4 year old say. There is likely a really dangerous mix between the utter vulnerability/isolation/dependency of a very young child and the inability of some individuals/families to meet that need adequately without support.

To be honest, I think it will always be with us.

I do a lot of historical research for a thing I do as a hobby, and it involves going through old court case reports. A few weeks ago, I came across a case where a man who had moved in with a woman and her child was in court for horrific abuse of the child. He'd even hung her upside down over a fire at one point.

The date? 1883.

It's then you realise it's been going on for centuries. I've found paedophilia cases in the early 19th century (hanging cases, those), reports of youngsters with alarming behaviours that suggested psychopathy being found dead in strange circumstances (again, 19th century), antisocial behaviour that would be perceived as excessive today (1930s), and the violence of muggings in the 18th century really takes the biscuit.

Now I'm at the age I am, I'm afraid I have come to the conclusion that some people are just evil, and there isn't really any reason for it. And I know how loaded that word is, but it's the only one left that gets anywhere near describing just how morally vacant and psychologically twisted they are.

These women are clearly far to vulnerable to become parents. Straight after birth and she's doing drugs with someone who isn't even the baby's father.

@sleepyhoglet I don’t know about vulnerable. In the BBC article it says that she was actually the dominant partner.

@bluewanda vulnerable in the sense that she doesn’t have strong role models and good relationships herself so has a warped idea of what’s right and wrong. Vulnerable in that she is damaged herself

I think I remember reading or hearing about an aspect of Daniel P's case, who lived only a few miles from my family. Apparently he kept trying to 'steal' food from the other children's lunchboxes at school, because his parents were starving him. How did that slip under the radar

That, I think, is what made Daniel Pelka’s plight so harrowing. He lived with monsters, who beat him mercilessly and starved him. That poor child lost so much weight in a short time and “stole” from his peer groups lunchboxes. He raided bins, in school, searching for scraps of food - and was reprimanded by school staff.

The only person he could rely on was his slightly older sibling, who kept a morsel of food back for him and took the blame for Daniel using the toilet, rather than defacating on the old, soiled, uncovered mattress he was was forced to sleep on. The mattress he was systematically abused on.

How can a small child survive when those who he is relying on to provide his basic needs don’t? The teachers who he is supposed to rely on for safeguarding tell him off for needing food when he is starving to death?

I have given up on “humanity”. I have seen too much of the (in)human race.

Daniel Pelka melted my heart. There have been many others since but Daniel was the one who made me see that most people are out of themselves.

RIP darling boy. You were too good for this world 💔

It's bad and it'll keep happening unfortunately. I don't really know the answer. 2 awful stories this week - Kaylee And the other poor little girl that was left in the flat in Brighton for 5 days on her own.
Honestly I just don't get it.
Poor little babies both of them. They were just babies really.

@Packingsoapandwater

I concur to an extent. I spent a lot of time researching early mental health care provision, so sanitoriums, asylums, workhouses, and yes, the tales of the crimes of the inmates and patients are both hair-raising, and just as violent and sickening as anything we read about today. It's nothing new.

Where I disagree is with the entire notion of 'evil'. It's a concept entirely invented by mankind and doesn't exist as any sort of entity that can influence the actions of human beings. In every instance of a horrific crime, there's a sociological, environmental, or pathological factor involved, even in those carried out by the well-to-do middle and upper classes with seemingly nothing to want for.

I particularly dislike threads like these which invariably bring out the rants about 'evil', because all it does is provide a handy cop-out, and it is just a cop-out, that helps us deflect from our failings as a society, and enables us to avoid asking difficult questions. Also, normal, healthy people do not go around killing small children, so it also acts as a panacea for the 'hanging is too good' types.

Unfortunately any attempt to point out that an 18 year old mother who kills her child by neglect perhaps has pretty significant underlying reasons for her lack of responsibility, gets shouted down as 'excusing' or 'exhonorating'. Evidently some people don't understand the basic difference between an 'excuse' and an 'explanation'. Thankfully the law doesn't pander to reactionary vindictiveness, because the only way we are ever going to progress to a point whereby these things no longer happen is by accepting that they happen because we fail, not because of 'evil' or any other nebulous concept.

Welsh it's quite a common human reaction to tell children off when actually a little thought shows they are in crisis like the Daniel p.
It's like the other common attack "he/she just wants attention" said in a really nasty way as if it's the most heinous crime in the world.

Maybe all vulnerable parents should be forced to engage with parent classes etc

But how can you get to the bottom of problems when the parent is themselves hasn't had those vital brain connections made and stimulated because they were also neglected as a child?

X down, I agree, and huge misunderstanding between excuse and explanation.

In every instance of a horrific crime, there's a sociological, environmental, or pathological factor involved

Again with the excuses - and yes, that is what they are. Do you not think the people responsible for these appalling crimes should have any level of personal responsibility at all? Or is it all everybody else’s fault?

[quote XDownwiththissortofthingX]@Packingsoapandwater

I concur to an extent. I spent a lot of time researching early mental health care provision, so sanitoriums, asylums, workhouses, and yes, the tales of the crimes of the inmates and patients are both hair-raising, and just as violent and sickening as anything we read about today. It's nothing new.

Where I disagree is with the entire notion of 'evil'. It's a concept entirely invented by mankind and doesn't exist as any sort of entity that can influence the actions of human beings. In every instance of a horrific crime, there's a sociological, environmental, or pathological factor involved, even in those carried out by the well-to-do middle and upper classes with seemingly nothing to want for.

I particularly dislike threads like these which invariably bring out the rants about 'evil', because all it does is provide a handy cop-out, and it is just a cop-out, that helps us deflect from our failings as a society, and enables us to avoid asking difficult questions. Also, normal, healthy people do not go around killing small children, so it also acts as a panacea for the 'hanging is too good' types.

Unfortunately any attempt to point out that an 18 year old mother who kills her child by neglect perhaps has pretty significant underlying reasons for her lack of responsibility, gets shouted down as 'excusing' or 'exhonorating'. Evidently some people don't understand the basic difference between an 'excuse' and an 'explanation'. Thankfully the law doesn't pander to reactionary vindictiveness, because the only way we are ever going to progress to a point whereby these things no longer happen is by accepting that they happen because we fail, not because of 'evil' or any other nebulous concept.[/quote]
This. What's the point in asking how and why when the answers get shouted down and it's all "evil, I don't care"?

What's the point in demanding change when the whys and hows are ignored and we can all pat ourselves on the back that we'd never do it and it's just "evil".

There are plenty of things that can be done at an individual level, there are even more at a systemic/population level. But that costs money, time , it takes effort and continued interest , it takes commitment,understanding, an overhaul of mentalities and how society views it's weak and vulnerable. It's hard work.

So instead we cry evil and wish it dead .

I can remember the study but there was a picture of a child of three brain from a normal loving family and one who had been neglected.

The actual brain synapses were wired differently.

An abused child whose goes into care who then goes into abuse...

Yy obvious and more dc sadly die.

@ObviousNameChage you don’t know anything about Kaylee-Jayde’s mother’s upbringing. The grandmother quoted in the papers sounded like she cared for her grandchild - and even reported her own daughter to social services. Nothing can excuse the ferocious attack that was meted out on that poor defenceless girl, nothing.