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 could only read half way through any of the details of how that poor little boy suffered, it was unspeakable. I also thought about the hospital staff who attended to him during his final moments and the jury members who had to hear, read and see the evidence of all the abuse that those two creatures inflicted on that tiny defenceless child.

I feel totally the same. What it really makes me question is the extent to which we value children in this country, and I think the answer is not very much. There were so many chances to save that poor little boy and all of them missed because of putting the feelings and fears of adults first. It is endemic in this country; every year another of these horrific cases happens and yet nothing ever changes. It must stop. Politicians, local government, care providers all need to stop massaging egos and courting votes and just do what needs to be done to protect children in this country.

OP here, thank you for all responses, I am struggling today and just felt so overwhelmed and saddened by this but there are so so many good foster and adoption parents that I hope these monsters don’t give them a bad name but I do think more checks should be made in first year of placement especially. So many families would have given this gorgeous baby a good life and the love he deserved, I shall certainly hold my grandson a lot tighter when I see him next xxx

Surely not…

Me either 😢 He had such a sweet smiley face. When you think of all the people desperate for a baby who would have adored him, it’s so terrible that he got landed with those monsters. RIP to a beautiful boy ♥️

I'm haunted by what I've read about what poor Preston went through. That poor baby. Some of the mental images are horrific, and even the basic cruelty of things like depriving him of sleep is just awful. I can't imagine they were caring for him appropriately on any level. I have a 2 year old and it pains me how often I think of Preston when I look at her now. It's so sad.

I am a bit of a coward as I can't bear to hear or read too much about this case. I hope the pair of them suffer horribly in jail.

Sickening. I hope they both die screaming. As others have said , that poor jury. I accidentally saw the child abuse pictures on MN last year. That was bad enough.

I have seen only the smiley beautiful picture of him that was in the paper this week, thankfully. Glad I've not seen the videos or images others have.

When I read these news stories I truly wish for the death penalty to be reinstated. An innocent baby! What complete evil monsters. The sad thing is it probably is more common than we even know.

Children are so completely trusting and innocent, and to do this to them makes me have no hope in humanity.

He was failed so badly by so many people, and you just wonder if he had just been kept by his foster mother he would have been alive today… sadly these disgusting people would have just gone onto do it to another child.

The leniency the Uk justice system has on these perpetrators is a joke. A cushty life in prison is a walk in the park compared to what evil and fear they instil on the innocent victim.

I cannot understand how they passed all of the adoption checks? I thought these checks and the process was very strict?

Awful. I can't read most of the information coming out as it's too disturbing. That poor boy. He was doomed from the start, his mother committed a horrific offence.

I wonder why they took him to hospital so many times, it looked incredibly suspicious. I wonder if he wanted to get caught in someway.

Why would they not have passed though? They obviously had no prior convictions for child abuse/ no criminal record, upstanding jobs, a nice home....it's not like they would admit to being abusers in the adoption process.

As a mother, the thought of leaving my children terrifies me. That poor boy. All of those poor children who should feel protected and loved. 😔

Agree. I can’t think of a horrific enough punishment for them. But I hope someone else can. And yes re the injuries, the poor poor little thing, it really is heartbreakingly awful.

Did you read the birth mother’s criminal record??

edit to add: foster mother seems of impeccable character

It's not just you, it has devastated me and DH too. I hate those men so much. That poor little boy, I'm so sorry for him, it breaks my heart.

my mother used to work with peadophiles (my laptop is saying i've spelled that wrong) once they where out of prison

she would never talk about the details of her job but years later,when i had dd1,she did use a throwaway comment about how some liked 'them school age and blonde,some like girls,others like boys' (i think that baby dd triggered something-she'd long left that job by then)

years and years later(dd was an adult by then),she said that you'd be amazed at the lengths they go to to abuse a child

there are no limits on what they'd go through-not one limit to get in their way

i firmly believe that they put themselves through the adoption process so they'd have one placed in their home to do whatever they liked to him (or in one friends words 'easier to get to,he was plonked in their lap') he wasn't a child to be loved,a small human being to be adored,their ds,he was their toy and their plaything

its fucking disgusting (i'm being polite as what id really like to say would get me banned)

they are sly,most are intelligent,charming,funny and all round lovely people that fit into any walk of life-people that you'd like as people (on the surface) not always that creepy old man that walks through a park,while smiling at kids or the slightly creepy man who smiles at your child in the street

they are the teachers,the social workers,the scout leaders,the nursery workers,the headmasters-any job you can think of where there is a chance there are children/parents around

they also believe that the children enjoy what's happening to them-they believe that the children 'are sexually aware',are 'teasing' the adults just by being children and deserve what happens to them (even if that child is a baby)

bastard,evil fuckers-i hope they get life (and that it means life) and i hope they suffer every single day until they die

that poor baby and poor foster carer-my heart goes out to her too,to love and care for a little one and then have to hand him over to these bastards must be torturing her from the inside out

(i cannot believe i've written what i've written but that is their mindset-preston 'let them down' by dying as they would have abused him until he managed to get away from them as an adult and in their sick bastard fucker evil heads,they'd done nothing wrong so had nothing to answer to-im also aware that not all gay men would abuse a child and women can as well)

god,i hope lessons really have been learned and its not just another soundbite

rip baby preston-you deserved better

@Delladuck given what you've said about how clever/determined people can be, what would you think are the 'lessons to be learned'? I'm curious as to how it would be possible to weed out those who are so good at putting on the veneer of respectability. As someone else up thread said, it's not that they're going to announce in the assessment that they had these thoughts.

I'm haunted by this story too. There are horrific details which I wish I had never read and I can't get out of my head. But then I also think, we owe it to Preston to fully face what he went through. Our society allowed it to happen. The least we can do it witness what he suffered and make sure it never, ever happens again.

Paedophiles have never been part of that rainbow.

I’m thinking of it all the time too. That poor baby. Failed by everyone around him. What a cruel time on this earth. I really and truly think these types of people deserve the death penalty. What use or purpose in keeping them alive.

Who on earth has voted YABU FFS.

it is another horrific case. I tried to only read the outcome And will read the sentencing. it is hideous whichever way you look at it but I think when you've got kids or grandkids similar age it somehow seemed to make it worse stop.

There was a case a few years ago where the little boy was killed . I made the mistake clicking on one of the videos where he was crying I've honestly never been able to get it out of my mind. I make a point now of only reading not watching anything. I can't imagine how awful it must have been for all the people I'm involved The jury had been excused from jury service for life. I did jury service and they go over everything so many times :The prosecution, the defence, the judge and in the jury room and mine was a something and nothing case really so to have to go through that so many times must have been absolutely harrowing for them.

He was only with them 4 months and had been at the hospital three times previous to this.

I doubt they'll survive prison And although I don't believe in an eye for an eye I would not lose any sleep over their Treatment.

This is taboo to say but not inaccurate.