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

As a social worker I have dealt with many cases of child abuse and neglect. I know evil exists. I know I should be used to stories like this. I just cannot get that helpless little boy out of my mind. The adults around him, failed him.

That's exactly what I think when I think about Daniel. How very helpless he was. And of his teacher who spent what was to be his last week with him by her side because she didn't know what else to do. I am so pleased the courts recognised this crime for what it was.

I've just watched the report in the news, I don't think I've ever been moved quite like this by any news story.

I'm so angry, so upset. How can anyone put a child through that.

Poor poor boy

As an ex teacher I just can't get my head round the teacher or the school.At my dc's school it would never have happened.

I'm just staggered.

I think many people who don't have experience of the system have a naive belief that referr

Ing and contacting other professionals will in some way cause a solution to happen. It won't. This case is wake up call for everyone.

What were said.

So sad. I am so angry too. It could have been so different.

Mumsnet at its best is a campaigning organisation. What can we do, to do our bit to prevent this?

What don't you understand about the teacher? I used to teach. I was not able or allowed to follow a child home from school and prevent them from being beaten to death. I could raise concerns. Repeatedly. I also used to provide money and food but that would have lost me my job eventually. Social workers are not able or allowed to do any more than follow procedures either.

The hungry children I taught had close calls due to things like road traffic accidents or drug ingestion. None of them died from starvation but the neglect r.e food was part of the general neglect which almost killed them.

You can't say that something like this couldn't happen in one particular school, there are nation-wide rules to follow, and not complying with set guidelines leaves children more vulnerable to abuse because a case may collapse.

I also wonder if something has changed within the legal system since Baby P. No murder convictions there iirc and it was a similar case with plausible lying evil bastards which sadly you can't legislate for.

So, so sad, poor little boy how he must have suffered.

I can't understand how anyone can treat a child so nastily, let alone the child's own mother. They're both so evil and cruel and for some reason her more so for letting him abuse her child and her participation in the abuse.

I am so disturbed by this case. That woman's face provokes feelings of utter, utter contempt. I couldn't keep my hands off her if I met her. I understand that they are both guilty if murder but she was his biological motherland as such is a disgusting piece of shit.

Mother

Aud no sorry I don't buy that.Abuse is going on up and down the land as we speak and children don't die or suffer so long in every case.

There are safeguarding policies and procedures in place in every school to stop this kind of thing happening.In many they work.

Going by your last post they may as well be ripped up.

The bit in the paper where it says on his final day before he was killed he was eating dried beans out of the sandpit is just utterly heartbreaking

I'm all for safeguarding measures! If they are in place in every school why don't they work in all schools and all cases but would never fail in your child's school? Are you suggesting that individuals were at fault? No wonder there are so many former teachers and social workers.

I also have been really affected by this story and have cried.
I can't understand such cruelty and especially from the mother. The teacher who spent the week with him - I really feel for her. She's obviously caring and must be so devastated by this.

That poor, poor child.

And dead ones. This case has affected me very much and it is another nail in the coffin of my teaching career. I could not live with myself if this happened on my watch even though I would have had to break the law by kidnapping the child in order to prevent it. What did you do for your neglected pupils? What else could have been done?

It's really important to get to the bottom of why the authorities failed to save Daniel. Especially why his teacher wasn't taken seriously when she tried, repeatedly it seems, to raise the alarm. Or the response to the school's concerns from social services was so woefully inadequate.

There have been too many cases like this, followed by some kind of inquiry or serious case review, where we are promised 'lessons will be learned'. And they never are. There's always another case where children fall through the net that is supposed to protect them. We need to find out why and how to at least reduce the chances of it happening again.

I suppose it will all come out how many times the authorities tried to help after the trial.

I think there is a wider problem with a system that demands haystacks of useless information about parents who 'infringe' safety in a trivial way rather than pursuing serious cases. If the murderers had sent a peanut bar in for Daniel it would raised concerns in a way that visible starvation did not. Only 'extreme' action could have saved this child. If the teacher had phoned head of social services and police daily until action taken maybe things would be different but responsibility is vague and diffused in our society and most assume the system is acting in some way From my perspective it's staggering that the head teacher could seriously have believed that calling the GP about the loss of weight would have led anywhere. Maybe in a novel or a TV show but not real life sadly.

Exactly Willow.

Apparently the evil pieces-of-shit mum and stepdad told teachers not to feed kid as "he was being treated for a very rare eating disorder". Let us hope the prison system deals with them

I agree that this poor child's parents are to blame but what horrifies me most about this case is the safety net that should be in place to protect children from abusive parents clearly didn't exist in this case and apparently doesn't in many of the references from teachers on this thread.

I think that this case demands a wider examination of how referrals are made and what happens. It shouldn't require 'extreme action' from school etc to protect a child.

edam that is so true
I read today that the Serious Case Review will be published in September

There is lots about the background to this case that I don't understand, I'm hoping the review will shed some light on why certain decisions were made. Although it is very sad to think back to Baby P, Victoria Climbie etc - the same things are said each time and yet there is always another tragedy.

At least these two individuals were found guilty of Daniel's murder, I had worried that the jury wouldn't be able to agree on a verdict and would "only" find them guilty of the lesser charges

In the end it only took them 4 hours to reach a verdict

Far too late for Daniel of course but I'm sure those cruel people will be facing extremely long minimum terms on their life sentences

Sentencing is on Friday

This case is horrific and how a mother could be capable of such cruelty is beyond me.

I was also shocked that he had siblings as hadn't realised that until today, assumed he was an only child. I hope these siblings are being well looked after now.