Amanda Hutton found guilty of manslaughter

[Rowlers]

Just that.
I find the photo of that poor little boy very distressing.

[WiddleAndPuke]

I don't like myself for thinking this but I really sincerely hope that this creature gets beaten regularly in prison. I know its wrong but there you go.

[DowntonTrout]

Bloody hell. The child had a father as well. He is equally responsible.

[curlew]

"I don't like myself for thinking this but I really sincerely hope that this creature gets beaten regularly in prison. I know its wrong but there you go"

Yep. That's wrong. Glad you know it is.

[DowntonTrout]

Or, at least, he should be.

[Mintyy]

I am also just so desperately sad for all the other children involved.

Living in a house like that ... didn't they turn up for school every day in filthy clothes, and undernourished?

It just seems impossible. What about her neighbours? I am honestly scratching my head about it all.

Rip dear little boy.

[northernlurker]

There are many parents who deal with domestic violence and alcohol addiction together with a host of other problems. They still raise children who are not negelected to death, though they aren't unaffected either.

This is an extreme case and the responsibility for the neglect lies at the foot of the person convicted today who should have cared for him. That doesn't mean that other people connected with the family - both personally and professionally - shouldn't also be questioning their actions.
Cruelty may be hidden by a malign will. Neglect should perhaps be more obvious. This should never have happened.

[BMW6]

FFS if a father had done this to a child under his parental responsibility there would have been a unanimous 100% voting to string him up.

There is no-one else responsible for her child starving to death, then being left for 2 years to rot in his cot, than her.

I'm all for vulnerable children being taken into care, but so many (far too many) times now the child's rights are being outweighed by the parents.

[Coffeenowplease]

I just dont understand it.

The older children went to school. There is no way they were always dressed/clean/not hungry. No way. No one noticed ? Did they ever talk about a brother or what was going on ? Some off hand comment ?

I just dont understand how something so bad was missed

And her and the brother, when the child died they "didnt want to call the police" What the fuck did they think would happen ? The body of the poor child would vanish ? And when he was dying the didnt get any kind of help. She rushed home - why didnt they call an ambulance then ?

[Coffeenowplease]

I am also so shocked she still turned up to court so drunk she couldnt testify.

[BMW6]

Every day, several times a day, she alone made the choice not to feed that particular child. out of all her children, she CHOSE to starve that one child.
SHE heard him crying. SHE had food available to feed that child. SHE did not feed him.

How can anyone say that she is not responsible?

[Mintyy]

I don't think anyone is saying she is not responsible.

[Sindarella]

I don't get the manslaughter conviction. It wasn't manslaughter, she didn't accidentally kill that poor boy. He was purposely neglected, starved and left to die. In my eyes it was murder. But then i think its murder if you kick someone in the head and they die from their injuries. If you know doing something could kill someone, and do it anyway, i believe thats murder.
That poor boy, makes me want to cuddle my boys just a little bit longer tonight.

[Pinkpinot]

Just shocking
So sad
So many questions

[Sindarella]

I think she is more responsible than anyone else, he was in her care. Everyone else involved let him down, they failed him.

[BMW6]

I don't think anyone is saying she is not responsible.

Read upthread. The Father, Social Services, The Neighbours..... anyone but The Mother. It appears to get you a Get Out Of Jail card. Or at least, a Someone Else's fault voucher.

Absolutely sickening. I hope the bitch suffers horribly. I wish she would be starved too, but that isn't going to happen, sadly.

[BMW6]

No it doesn't. The mother was an alcoholic victim of domestic violence in a country which supposedly has systems in place to protect the vulnerable. The buck does not stop with her.

See, an example of utter crap.

No BMW, the buck does not stop there- many other adults were aware of this child's existence and failed to help him as well. His mother may have been his main carer but she is patently unable to look after any child, let alone with potential health problems.

More absolute shite.

I will reiterate, this Mother CHOSE to not feed this partcular child. No-one forced or coerced her to do so. She CHOSE to do so.
When the child finally died, she alone CHOSE to leave the body in the cot to rot.

For whatever reason, she alone singled out this child for her abuse, no one else.

[wannaBe]

and yet again because she is a woman people are saying she is a victim (mercifully not many of them but still...)

if this was the father nobody would be calling for the absent mother to be charged.

A mother starved her child to death and then kept his body for years. That was her choice and her's alone.

Should others have spotted something was amiss - almost certainly.

but she didn't allow professionals in. Nowhere has there been talk that the teachers etc from school had concerns about the children (such as in the case of Daniel Pelka).

How many people on here for instance, if someone says they don't like their hv and are sure everything's ok advise them that "you don't need to see your hv if you don't want to."

It should have been murder not manslaughter and she should get life.

[meditrina]

There were reporting restrictions on this case.

They have been lifted only partially.

[handcream]

I have to say I agree with BMW. When mothers do things like this or stand by and let their children be abused by their latest boyfriend time and time again they make a choice, they choose themselves. They dont choose their children. Its all about THEM. We can say 'ah , well yes she was a DV victim'. So bloody what in this case. The alleged abuser had long gone. So, lets think up Excuse 2. Blame SS, and so it goes on.

Having said that I believe that women who have committed this sort of crime dont do well in prison as in they are prone to be attacked by other prisoners. Of course they will be protected but if they are with a prison offcier and someone runs toward her with a home made knife then not in a million years would the prison officer be expected to defend her with their life.

[JumpingJackSprat]

i too do not understand why its not murder. a child is dead because of her deliberate actions. rest in peace.

[handcream]

I have to say I have seen posters saying you dont have to let HV's in or attend GP's appointments. You can claim to Home Educate. Its YOUR right. And then something like this happens.

I agree, when a women kills her child some are looking for excuses and to blame others. If the father had done this I would suspect that all of us would want him to rot in hell.

And it does seem much more common for mothers to do this to their own children. The women who jumped off a cliff holding her children. Daniel P, Baby B. There were scum bag partners often but they werent the child's father.

[Bowlersarm]

curlew I think you're being too kind to her.

I cannot believe that a mother could do that to her child. There is no excuse for her.

[Mintyy]

But why not question the father's role in all of this? It doesn't mean no one is blaming the mother.

[timtam23]

Very, very sad.

The BBC report says that in 2011 (when Hamzah's body was found) there were 5 children of school age in the house - the youngest was 5. So when Hamzah died in 2009, that youngest child would have been 2 or 3 - presumably that child was missing appointments etc as well, or else more concerns might have been raised about Hamzah?
I work in health care services and do hear & see some awful awful things about the consequences of alcohol abuse and also child safeguarding but this case has been really harrowing. And as meditrina says, I'm sure we don't know the half of it.