Can’t get over poor baby Preston

[Doximama2]

Not sure this is an AIBU, I never post on here but just feel I want to today. I am a 59 year old nana of 3 gourgous grandchildren including a one year old boy, the whole story in the need the last few weeks and especially this week about poor baby Preston that was tortured, abused and ultimately murdered by his 2 adoptive “fathers” has completely traumatized me. I am recovering from a big surgery 2 weeks ago so feeling emotional but this has really upset me so much that this was able to happen and that no one, not any social services, medics on visits to the hospital - one even with a broken elbow ffs - friends and family of these monsters realised what was happening and that Preston wasn’t a happy one year old. My grandson is always happy and smiling unless he is poorly so how did this go unnoticed? I had to turn the news off Monday when they showed this poor baby trying to sleep and this monster kept making him wake up.

im not naive, I have worked in public service including health and social services which I think is why I can’t comprehend how this was allowed to happen. It just feels like there is so many awful things in the world, and has made me so sad. 😭

I've said throughout that the review needs to look at whether the medical assessments were done thoroughly enough and whether the decision that they were accidental injuries was a reasonable assessment.
As I've said many times, the social worker isn't medically trained and has to rely on the clinical decision. I don't see why you think any of that is controversial, or something I need to answer for.

I read about this last night and then had a job getting to sleep.
So shocking to read. How this baby was treated. Poor little boy. He didn’t even make his first Birthday. Just heard his murderer has received a full life term. Good.

I've read that Varley gave two accounts (to different people at different times) one was grabbing him when he fell and one was the baby wriggling and getting his arm caught as he placed him in his cot. I agree that his safeguarding training meant that he would have an idea how to give more plausible answers (as both are, re the twisting motion - it isn't an injury that requires a lot of force in a child that young, as far as I know)

Thank you. Some justice at least. I hope they live in fear and pain for the rest of their miserable lives.

Going back to the sentencing, I did think a whole life order was on the cards for Varley, I'm glad his co-defendent got 25yrs as the reporting on him hasn't been half as bad I was worried he'd get off lightly. It is a massive fall from grace for both of them, both are used to positions of respect and authority and I'm glad that it will be a horrible adjustment for them, being the lowest of the low, even in a prison.

Those two men deserve whatever is coming to them in prison.
‘Professionals’ involved in this case and other similar cases, where there were warning signs, need to have more curiosity. Ask the questions, step up the monitoring and not make assumptions because we know enough about abuse to know being ‘middle class’ or having a good job does not mean anything.

@Sunglade ii think everyone accepts that the adoption assessment process needs to be scrutinised as part of the review, but the existence of regional adoption agencies is nothing to do with business making profit from adoption. The people staffing them are the same people who used to be in the local authority adoption teams, and they work across both systems. It's just a way of pooling resources and working in a more joined up way, which makes sense when children are commonly placed for adoption across local authority borders.

I've said throughout that the review needs to look at whether the medical assessments were done thoroughly enough and whether the decision that they were accidental injuries was a reasonable assessment.
As I've said many times, the social worker isn't medically trained and has to rely on the clinical decision.

I really disagree with the part about the social worker here.

There really is no way of knowing if injuries in babies/non verbal children are accidental or not, so the clinicial decision is a matter of opinion basically based on the evidence (explanations) they are provided with and whether they find them plausible or not.. it must be a hard task, children do get injured.

BUT after one call for medical attention, which they aborted and then THREE hospital visits, twice with 'unexplained bruising' and once with a fractured elbow.. that's not unexplained injuries, that is a pattern.

A social worker isn't medically trained, but they SHOULD be trained to recognise that there is a pattern of injuries forming, or that the adoptive parents aren't suitable to look after a baby if the can't stop it from getting injured in their care.

The child's social worker, Amy Shepherdson, who had been in contact with the hospital, texted Varley to say: "Just to reassure you they said they had absolutely no concerns. U absolutely did the right thing."
She visits the home and notes Preston had a "very sad face and a little cry".

The first trip to a&e was a suspected seizure.
The second was D&V and a temperature.

Think back to your own children and seeking medical attention for those type of symptoms, would you have accepted it was a pattern or safeguarding concerns that needed to be invested as suspected child abuse?

As someone who's been adopted, and am usually very pro-adoption, in this terrible case i actually wish it didn't exist. I wish that poor, sweet beautiful baby had remained with his foster parents, who (from the brief, heartbreaking video of Preston in his high chair), clearly adored him.

I can't unsee that video. My heart breaks for that beautiful baby.😭😭😭

BOTH cases, around a month apart had 'unexplained' bruising to his face/head as well as the things you mentioned above.

The first time police and social services were called and accepted the parents explanation of how the bruising happened.

The second time, the fresh bruising was explained by him pulling a toybox on top of himself.. they showed a video of it happening, but it turns out that video was from 12 days prior.

The third time he had a fractured elbow.

ALL of this is within 4 months. there is a pattern of injuries there that was completely IGNORED by social services.

And there it is, you jump on the social workers not the medics. There was a discussion about bruising on one of those occasions as far as I understand it from what I've read. The clinical decision was that it wasn't an unusual bruise on a baby who was learning to walk. The video was shown to the clinicians as an explanation at the medical appointment. A social worker is required to look at the overall picture, but a big part of that is respecting the expert opinion of those who provide the evidence for that picture.

I have said several times that I hope the investigation tells us whether the medical examinations where thorough enough, eg were there injuries at the time that were hidden, was there professional curiosity by the medics about the explanations the carers gave.

You say that attending a&e 3 times in four months is such an obvious pattern that something should have been done. Presumably you aren't aware that for children in care, their carers are told to seek medical attention without question. It isn't an unusual number of visits - I have overseen many children with more. Where all the evidence is that they are thriving. Should they all be removed from their carers just in case? Where do they go? And should the new carers,if found, not take them to A&E if they are concerned?

As I've said before, the reason why it's impossible to eradicate child abuse is that for every scenario where X Y and Z happens, and it seems to an outsider with the benefit of hindsight that it was so obvious and heads must roll, there are hundreds of other cases where similar 'red flags' are apparent and nothing bad happens. It simply would be disproportionately harmful to remove children when in so many cases it would be a false flag.

And again as I've said before, if you're so sure that you're right, and that social workers are wrong, they're always recruiting. And if you can't, there are plenty of productive ways you can get involved to safeguard children, rather than posting indignantly on Mumsnet. Being angry on here doesn't do anything to protect children like Preston.

@Runningswankerthanks for all your very informative posts. Sadly social workers are always vilified as many people don’t have the understanding around processes, systems and legal procedures and want someone to blame. Many questions can’t be answered until the Children's Safeguarding Practice Review is completed; I’ll be interested in the details around the paediatric assessment of the fracture. In my experience a spiral fracture in a young child is uncommon and indicative of a NAI so the adopters must have given a very plausible explanation.

@bilbohaggins i have missed this in the reporting - where are the texts from the social worker reported? Thanks.

I wasn’t suggesting you should answer for it, sorry if it seemed that way. I was curious because the commentator seemed to say there is a clear guideline on that injury (and I hadn’t heard that before) so I was interested in the thoughts of current professionals.

ETA I was also not assuming that professionals means only SW.

Not at all for profit. Why not do your own basic research?

We’re all sick of ramshackle institutions and anyone with a background in public service will tell you outsourcing has pros and cons.

The terrible state of children’s services is less to do with individuals and more to do with decades of gutting it and pointing fingers at individuals. Who wants to work in child protection? Almost no-one. So by all means ‘drag them into court’ based on your (id say rudimentary) understanding of what happened here, and then even fewer people will want to work there, and more will leave. And how will that help the hapless children of parents who are damaged and dangerous?

So glad that the bustard got a whole life order.

I hope someone murders him in prison.

And there it is, you jump on the social workers not the medics.

The medics did their job, they treated the child for the presented symptoms, they noted unexplained injuries and flagged it to social services and the police.

The social workers are there to look at the bigger picture and their job is to safeguard the child before, during and after the adoption process, they failed in their duty in this case, that broken elbow should have been enough to pause the adoption process while it was looked into more deeply.

and it seems to an outsider with the benefit of hindsight that it was so obvious and heads must roll

That is a slap in the face to all children who have been killed and abused while in the care of adoptive parents. I'm not talking about hindsight, I'm talking about 3 lots of recorded injuries in 4 months (4 if you count the first phone call that was never followed up saying he couldn't breath). They also continually refused contact with the foster mother which she ended up complaining to social services about as she felt he was being hidden from her. Not to mention the fact that the child never had ANY problems with his foster family for the first 10 months of his life. That is the evidence presented AT THE TIME.

The postmortem, the photos and messages, testimony from colleagues etc are what make it irrefutable as murder, but the evidence was already there that this child was coming to harm in their care, even if they said it was 'accidental'.. if they couldn't keep a baby safe from harm, after repeated incidents, they had no place being allowed to remain as adoptive parents.

Social workers are particular targets and it make me really angry knowing that, although like any profession, some are less experienced or just less able, a bunch of people who spend all day trying to help with things most of us would prefer did not happen and people we might want to cross the street to avoid are routinely vilified and blamed. Not to mention work in horrendous circumstances, usually with case loads far beyond what they should have.

The review is vital, as in all of these tragedies. But its also the case that evil people will do evil things and that some of those things will involve children. Its a terrifying thought so I get why a knee-jerk, find-someone-to-blame reaction is attractive. But that does nothing to help with the issue. It just makes the outraged blamers feel a little safer for a moment.

He did. In misery, torment and pain. He died aged 13 months old.

This was from the BBC:

6 July, 2023
Varley takes Preston to hospital at 10:40 for third time with injury to his left arm.
He said it was sustained while putting him in his cot the previous evening.
After an X-ray, a cast is applied for a fractured elbow.

The child's social worker, Amy Shepherdson, who had been in contact with the hospital, texted Varley to say: "Just to reassure you they said they had absolutely no concerns. U absolutely did the right thing."

She visits the home and notes Preston had a "very sad face and a little cry".

To be honest this has what has done me in, how many people 'accidentally' break their children's arms?? After presenting at hospital with unexplained bruising twice before .. how much more evidence was needed that there was a problem with the level of care they were giving him?

She sounds like his friend, looking out for HIS best interest, not the child's social worker. The PP was right, it's embarassing.

I have raised two, watched my siblings and in-laws raise many. Not a fucking broken arm between us. I am not saying that accidents do not happen, but how woefully incompetent and ignorant do you have to be to not consider this a red flag.

Thanks for this @SandyHappy.

I am neither a social worker or a medic, nor am I familiar enough with the case to offer what I would be considered to be an informed comment, but I will anyway as this case has horrified me so fucking much. Plus I am a lawyer so can’t help myself.

I am aware they might be out of context, but those text messages do not read as if they are coming from a professional acting in the best interests of the child. They read as messages sent to reassure a friend or party that the social worker had allied themselves with. Surely they should not have rushed to offer any such reassurance?

I agree @TequillaSunset

I voted yabu because of the many virtue signalling posts on MN over this.