Mother of Star Hobson does not deserve sympathy

[pumpkinspice87]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12385875/amp/Family-murdered-Star-Hobson-looking-forward-welcoming-home-mother-allowed-toddler-die-hands-girlfriend-say-victim-tragedy.html

Am I being unreasonable to be absolutely sickened by this article? I get that this man is traumatised by what happened to his family, but how could anyone be so blinded as to see Star's mother as some sort of innocent victim? She was a cruel and neglectful mother who was too infatuated with her new partner to protect her baby daughter. Yes, I know she has a low IQ and learning difficulties. However, to use this as a constant excuse is an absolute insult to the many, many people in this country with learning difficulties (many of whom are parents) who would never, ever think it is acceptable to stand by and watch whilst their child is horrifically abused.

Your having ADHD is quite different to having an intellectual disability.

Although some intellectually disabled people have managed to raise children fine, it's not the norm and it hasn't been without the help of loving and capable relations or social care (sometimes a combination of the two)

Most intellectually disabled women of child bearing age who are being cared for are put on some form of contraception.

Star's mother should certainly be sterilised for her own good and that of her family's.

Not to these people.

People aren't saying that though are they? People are saying she was vulnerable and whilst she is responsible for allowing this to happen in her home and to her child it's criminal that social services were alerted 5 times and nothing was done, and that some people are for various reasons vulnerable and the cuts to support services is having an impact. As I asked earlier in the thread, I wonder how different opinion would be if her partner was a man.

I would have locked them both up and thrown the key away with the rest of the scum who beat, torture and kill, but that's just me.

Frankie Smith also abused and hurt her daughter Star, it wasn't just the other woman.

"Smith accepted she mistreated Star and her behaviour accounted to cruelty. The maximum charge for this is 10 years.
"There were at least eight instances identified, each captured on video. Having seen these images, we do not accept these are the full picture of this.
"There was a consistent pattern of cruelty by Smith towards her daughter in the months before her death."

....

It's been mentioned that Frankie was obedient and compliant yet she ignored her half sister Alicia who adored her niece Star.

Frankie may have a low IQ but she was devious and manipulative with social services and her family.

Five times this was reported to Social Services

Five times Social Services dismissed family concerns

Five times Social Services ignores bruising and warnings

Five times Social Services disbelieved family, putting their liberal principles first

Five times Social Services failed to put together the potential risk of learning disabled, vulnerable young woman under the influence of violent and older abusive partner.

Five times Social Services failed to protect a toddler.

Five times over Social Services could have changed the trajectory here.

A child is dead. A family is broken. Whilst the mother and partner rightly went to prison, Social Services could have avoided this.

I wish the gentleman and granddaughter well and I hope they recover and eventually find some peace. I suspect Star's mother will be dead in a few years having turned to alcohol or drugs, possibly prostitution to pay for them.

Social Services are the ones who need to be strung up here for ignoring repeated warnings. It is disgraceful and I hope the professionals involved are disciplined. They are the ones who deserve to be in prison. I can quite imagine they weren't particularly respectful to the people.reporting this either.

Frankie is really stupid, there's no nice was of putting it. She has a low IQ and is really easily led. She's childlike.

Other than that she was normal until she met her partner Savannah, when she became isolated from both friends and family.

There is as always a lot that is not reported on in the press. Especially about Savannah. There's good reasons she got the much heavier sentence.

I am fiercely protective of my child, even now he is an adult. That's because I am capable of being protective and strong. Frankie is and was very vulnerable. She couldn't protect her child, she has lost her child and served a prison sentence because of it, so I'm not in the least bit surprised that her family want her back to help salvage what is left of her life even though the Mumsnet burn the witch mob are out in force.

Should she have done a lot more to protect her baby? Yes.

Could she have done more to save Star given the circumstances surrounding her death. Probably not. Hence her relatively light sentence, the English justice system does, rightly, take mental impairment into account.

What on earth would keeping her in prison for 50/60 years achieve? Provided that she is properly supervised and supported, she is not realistically a danger to anyone. Remember, it costs on average over £40K a year to keep a person in prison. Doesn't it make more sense to help her to become a productive member of society?

It's utterly heartbreaking that this child was let down by social services, I understand that they have a tough job however there were numerous complaints to social services and that baby still died, can't imagine how people felt after having the courage to report them and then have it called malicious.

My little 18 month baby is sleeping beside me. I stroked her to sleep and just looked at her soft little face and whisps of baby curls. I just cannot fathom punching her; it's so outside my realm of how I would treat an innocent, precious little human. I saw the cctv footage in the car and it turned my stomach, actually made my blood run cold.

From what I gather, the Savannah told Frankie that she was being too soft with Star and implied that she knew what she was talking about. I don't know if Frankie, with her low IQ considered, took the word of this older woman whom she idolised and thought, ok maybe Savannah knows better than me, and went along with it in that respect. I followed the court case and the judge commented how well Frankie was able to hold her own under question for someone who claimed to be so vulnerable and gullible. I don't know.

The only black and white aspect of this case is that Savannah was a control freak. She was jealous of Star and resented not just the fact she wasn't her biological parent, but also that Frankie had some.form of bond with her that she didn't. Same old story of these 'step parents'. Jealous, inadequate, controlling, manipulative. There is a unique recipe of a person like that getting into a relationship with someone passive, needy and emotional vulnerable which seems to bewitch them into choosing a team, to the catastrophic co sequences for their children who are cast aside for the new partner. These parents often seem to be bobbling along quite nicely, parenting adequately until the new person comes along. A switch is turned off, or on. Maybe the parent becomes evil in a way they wouldn't have done without the partner. Maybe the new partner unleashes a deep selfishness that was there all along. A mix of both, I think. I think everyone is capable of terrible things, given the right circumstances, some more than others, of course. Certain circumstances are the perfect breeding ground for it. The way it seems to creep into relationships is so utterly insidious.

That poor baby, and the other children who also lost their lives in similar circumstances around the same time. Beautiful children who were so badly failed.

This in DROVES. 👏 👏 👏

It begs the question how many other women who are so childlike and vulnerable slip under the radar of SS.

This, really. If Brockhill managed to manipulate clued-up and experienced social workers into thinking everything was OK, what chance did someone with such a low IQ have against her?

I would disown her but it's up to her family what they do. Don't think it's anyone else's business and I don't think it needed to be printed in the press.

No-one is virtue signalling here. Savannah can rot in hell but I don't want to see an intellectually disabled woman in prison forever. I think she should be sterilised and put into assisted living when she's released

I think with child deaths and torture of children there is defiantly a case to be made for needing much longer sentences than currently given out but I don't know the reasoning behind current guidelines.

I don't think we can tell families members how to react - Mr Fawcett says they had five deaths as well as Stars- he clearly tried to raise alarms with SS and wider - I image his emotions are very complex - and despite caption the article does seem most of the family have walked away from her.

No-one has said this is an excuse. Please don't misrepresent what people are saying just because you want to pursue your own political agenda.

No it's not an excuse.

Point to anywhere that has been said.

But there is understanding someone with low intellect will has massive gaps in their developmental level and possibly didn't have the skills or tools to know how to prevent it.

We read threads on here all the time where intelligent woman with children can't see they are being abused and Mn need to point it out. I'm sure they don't all leave.

But she had a low IQ and at the point the family pointed out to SS on 5 separate occasions that she was being coerced and star being abused and they needed help then the services failed them both by accusing her family of being homophobic and anti gypsy.

This could have been prevented.

They could have realised the family were concerned for Star and removed her from her biological mum who couldn't care for her.

Star was the person most failed in this. But there were many many failures and many victims of that failure.

Scummy story so many of them about now.

Shouldn't have even had a child wasn't even with the boyfriend 5 mins.

Then allowed some horrible cruel woman to kill the child.
Should both be locked up forever and the family member should shut up. Sounds like he just wants to be in the paper.

She hurt her own daughter.

It's on video.

She hurt and abused her own daughter.

The more brutal abuse for want of a better description was by her girlfriend and resulted in Star being murdered.

Frankie Smith is still responsible for hurting her daughter Star, such cruelty that the judge pointed out deserved at least ten years

Frankie repeatedly lied to social services and her own family.

Repeatedly. Not under coercion. Off her own back.

She is a danger to other children including her own if she goes on to have another. She will, I have no doubt.

Should be sterilised.

So you even begin to have any understanding of how vulnerable someone with learning difficulties is?

They are often coerced into sex and feel loved very easily. Too trusting.

The fact Stars dad stole the money raised for her headstone and bench shows what type of person he is.

No one's debating Star was horrifically failed. It's been pointed out SS failed her on 5 accounts.

But Frankie was failed too. Because if they'd have take the reports from family seriously Star would have been removed and she may have got the support she needed too.

She's not an innocent victim. But she is a victim of failure on behalf of the services who were told of the abuse 5 times

Frankie did deserve to go to jail.

But to ignore that this could have been prevented will not help the next child or the next.

ADHD is not a mental health issue btw. À

I think with her low IQ if she was that vulnerable, she should have been/should be when leaving jail - on contraception. If she’s mentally incapacitated to care/look after a child, she shouldn’t have the opportunity to have another kid. That poor child. Sorry if that offends anyone but a child beaten to death by a feckless mother and a step parent is disgusting. I hope she never gets released

Why did Savannah Brockhill want to behave like this in the first place?

Why did she want to murder a baby?

These are things we need to understand.

Why was she such a weak and vile bully who picked on a child?