4 year old starved to death by his parents

[SquidgyMummy]

Horrendous Story

What i can't understand is why all the people who could have helped him: Teachers, school nurse, doctors etc could not see he was being mistreated. My 2 1/ year old weighs more than that poor child when he died.
I am just sickened by his needless death and the hand wringing "if only's" by the other adults who should have protected him

Sorry, this is not a petition I will be signing. This seems to put far too much blame on the school for not doing more. We don't know exactly what they did do, but from what I have read, those classroom staff in daily contact with him, did try to do as much as they could.

I am normally very right wing in my views (as some on the forum know!). I really despair of this case though, these people found each other and undertook poor evil. We can say that SW, the school, etc should have done more.

Maybe - I suspect that the outcome will be better communications (again!) but we do need to progress on getting the agencies joined up. Someone oversees the case and gets reports from police, SW, the school and can get a clear picture of what is going on. Not just snippets from different depts.

I do also wonder what we do with these two criminals. Jail in our country just seems too good for them tbh. Human rights protected, three meals a day, protection from other prisoners, do-gooders saying that the mother was in fact a 'victim' in all of this. Appeals, more money being spent on them and their 'rights'.

It seems all wrong.

My DH says for people like this give them the choice of life imprisonment or a sucide pill that they can take at any time. Saves us lots of money as well. It will never happen though.

I was the subject of a burgulary last year. Young lads on bikes smashing windows of houses they liked the look of. They rampaged through the house and attacked the dog. I had people on a thread saying we must 'support' them, give them another chance, they are so young. When it happens to YOU you do feel differently though. I wanted to meet them, the polcie advised against it, they said they didnt care, wouldnt look you in the eye.

The mother (why is there so much crime committed by boys being brought up by a single mother) lied and tried to cover up where they were.

do-gooders saying that the mother was in fact a 'victim' in all of this.

Handcream, I get ya but honestly, noone is saying this. even her defence barrister! I PRAY that they dont get protected.Ohhhhh I am waiting to read about a little toothbruch/razor blade/lighter mash up being applied to their bodies

I cant beleive I just typed that

Ladies, all we can do is keep our eyes and ears open . Some bad shit goes on. and I think we have to be ever vigilent

RIP darling darling Daniel , I am fucking crying

I know, however- she tried the 'victim' defence at her trial. Apparently her mother is doing the same now. What a feckless disfunctional family.

I fear we havent seen the last of her blaming others - to have been forced to do all of this and in fear of her life should she report him....

I have been so upset by this case as all of us have. It has left me feeling completely helpless and despairing about human nature and what we are capable of. I just can't stop thinking about that poor little soul.

It's very easy to point the finger at the other adults that Daniel came into contact with (teachers, health workers, social workers and even the neighbours) but unless all those professions/organisations involved in child protection are properly trained and resourced to deal with these cases; until they are sufficiently supported by a joined up referral system (that works nationwide) and allows them to share information effectively; until they have proper powers to intervene - we will see this happen again and that is so terrifying. I know, an ideal world and all that and we will never stop it completely. But, it really should be our first priority to ensure enough resources and effort is put into caring for those most vulnerable. It should have stopped with Victoria Climbie, Baby P....

I'm also dubious about the UK's current focus and approach of keeping and supporting dysfunctional families together (yes it can work out in some cases) but not all and children aren't always better off with those they are just genetically related to! Also as individuals we need to stop turning a blind eye. I just hope that, if nothing else, this case makes us a little more sceptical and a little more spurred on to intervene if we see anything that feel is wrong.

At least Daniel has some peace now.

Well, they've been given life. I hope it fucking means life too.

I cried my eyes out seeing the CCTV footage from the school of him walking down the corridor, he looked so much like my nephew at that age. I can't begin to imagine what possesses anyone to treat a child like this, our every instinct surely should be to look after children and keep them safe

Yes, we need to have a joined up approach. And I so agree with you re supporting dysfunctional families. Peter's mother and her scumbag partners had huge amounts of suppport and lived in a complete pig sty with men drifting in and out. FGS - one of these men raped a 2 year old. |

Yet only a few days before (and I remember this because it was so wrong!) her SW saying how proud of her she was and how well she was doing...

We seem to be more and more accepting of what 30 years ago was seen as disfunctional. We are scared to say what we really think for fear of being accused of being racist, culturally insensitive etc, biased towards single mothers who have various random men visiting, and who have criminal records. We often seem to want to give them chance after chance.

Hadnt heard the sentence. But it wont mean life will it.....

It's not just teachers, social workers etc...it's everybody. Neighbours, other parents, family. It's because we think "oh it's been referred" that we don't look and we should.

Just a thought.

I have in the past spoken to SS about a child who lives up the road...and I keep an eye on him too. I don't know what (if anything) happened about the referral but I still have concerns (low level neglect) and I won't hesitate to ring again if it becomes extra concerning.

We all need to be doing this.

You are right Jake, we need to keep an eye on things, my very elderly neighbour who clearly has memory loss (doesnt recognise us even though we have lived her for 12 years) still drives. I have followed her ocasionally when I am out and about and she is a good competent driver. But I will keep a look out...

I was just reading this extract from the Guardian about Victoria Climbie:

Learning from past experience - a review of serious case reviews, evidence from a random selection of cases indicated that, for example the age of the primary carer at the time of the death of a child is normally between 21 and 30, that almost half had mental health problems and the majority were in unstable long-term relationships with some degree of violence. Furthermore, they are part of households that experience frequent moves and have, increasingly, drug and alcohol problems.

Much of this could be describing Daniel's family. 10 years on and we seem to have learnt nothing.

Mother Magdalena Luczak, 27, and step-father Mariusz Krezolek, 34, will both serve minimum terms of 30 years in prison.

The pair, from Holbrooks, had been found guilty of the four-year-old's murder at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday.

Read more: Daniel Pelka killers jailed for life | Coventry Observer

I have been following this for weeks, and now its all over. I cantstop fucking crying

It says they must serve a minimum of 30 years each, good.

Will they actually serve 30 years though? I just don't trust the legal system anymore. In a few years, when prisons are full, people will have forgotten about this case.

They have to serve a min of 30 before they are eligable for parole, only home secretary or appeal could change it.

I don't think 30 years is enough tbh and I think they should serve the sentence is poland where I assume the prisons are more like prisons and less like holiday camps.

I thought that too but then it would have to work in all cases ie that GM currently in jail in Bali expecting to be released and allowed to serve her time in UK jail.

Problem is these two are going to cost thousands to keep now. Only just saw a picture of them a few mins ago. She looks really rough and he looks like someone you would cross the road to avoid. Perhaps another red flag for the authorites.

You can't take children away from their parents because they 'look a bit rough', FGS!

I'm glad they got a minimum term of 30 years before they can even be considered for parole. That is a real signal from the judge about the extraordinary depravity of this crime. I interviewed a lifer once, double murderer, who had done 22 years. (He had reformed, thanks to a dedicated prison tutor.)

Re. Baby P - very sadly there was a long history of SS involvement in generations of his family. It was irony of ironies that Lord Laming was asked to hold the inquiry into Peter's death. Laming had been the local inspector of children's services who had resisted inquiring into the child abuse scandal in Islington children's homes when members of Peter's family were in there, the same generation as Peter's mother. details here. Neither Laming, nor Hodge, have ever been held to account for their obstinate refusal to stop paedophiles preying on children in Islington.

I am a foster carer and unfortunately cases like this happen all too often, barely ever making the headlines like this.

Even when social services are informed and decide a child should be removed social workers now have to convince financial managers that its worth spending the money!

All the carers in my local authority have been informed lately that less children are going to be brought into care, instead more "support" (from social workers already struggling with huge, huge caseloads) will be given to families in need.

The whole system is collapsing and it makes me furious.

Scarlet I just wish our female politicians or our male politicians wives could read your post.... and change things

Yes this is indeed another horrific case. I think teaching staff have a duty to refer any cases of suspected child abuse to Social Services and they should then instigate a S.47 enquiry into the allegations. I don't know if this happened. I did read somewhere that the child was seen by a GP 3 weeks before he died who described him as "thin but not wasted" - I think this GP has a lot to answer for. I usually get annoyed at the thing about "lessons have to be learned" but probably for different reasons than others. Having been a social worker for 30 years I know that to prevent children being abused is simply not possible, because you would have to live with the families to detect abuse, and of course that can't be done. I usually think it should be pointed out that while ever there are people out there who are so damaged and deranged and have children in their care, then these cases are going to happen. Sad but true. You cannot totally eliminate risk to children, and I wish this was made known at the time of these cases.

Hi Scarlet I know social services are hugely under resourced and this has always been the case, but I'm afraid I blame the coalition for the reckless way they have slashed budgets of all public services to pay for the deficit caused by the greed of the bankers. It isn't really a case of sws having to convince managers if it's worth spending the money, it's a case of whether there are enough social workers to actually take on the case and enough money to pay carers etc etc. It really is that bad, and yes children are going to be left in unsafe homes, and the fault lies at the hands of Cameron and his wealthy cabinet members.

So Holly I'm afraid it is the male and female members of the cabinet and MPs of this coalition who are the root cause of the problem. Yes of course they will start to blame all the public servants whose budgets have been cut to the bone, but many people are not aware of the real reasons why LAs cannot carry out their duties in a proper manner.

I am not saying the cuts are responsible for the case under discussion, as many things are unknown until the SCR is published. One thing that is odd is that there was a sibling who was not ill treated as far as we know. I wonder if the sibling was the natural child of Daniel's step father, as in so many cases a step father is involved, but the mother was equally responsible in this case.

30 years for both of them...well it's a long minimum term right enough, and the judge's comments made it quite clear that she considered Daniel's murderers to have been particularly callous & cruel, but...it doesn't seem long enough. I heard yet more details on the news when driving home & I was in tears in the car. Work colleague of mum's partner who knew Daniel was being beaten...Daniel's Polish grandma who thinks her daughter isn't to blame, it's "the system" in England which killed him...really I despair.

I'm not usually amongst the "hang 'em and flog 'em" brigade but maybe they will experience some rough justice in prison.

scarlet that's very true about lots of other cases going unnoticed, I remember there was a horrible case around the time of Baby P, a baby girl who died of a severely broken back after assault & abuse from dad I think? but it passed without much comment because of the focus on the Baby P case.

Minesa I can't look at a photo of Daniel without thinking about my DS1 - another little blond boy in a red school jumper. Upsets me every time.

NanaNina - yes, I so agree with your second paragraph. When are we going to hold Cameron and his chums responsible?

I find it shocking that another child can be starved to death in the same local authority as that responsible for the care of Khyra Ishaq. It gives me no confidence at all that anything will change as a result of poor Daniel's death. I don't think the blame can be layed totally at the coalition's door re funding, Khyra Ishaq was killed in 2008.

Sorry that should be neighbouring authority. How does a serious case review work? Are the findings published nationally and shared amongst all authorities or confined to the local authority responsible?