Anyone been following the Jordan Burling death case *warning, distressing*

[SealSong]

Has anyone been following this baffling and tragic case?
Mother and Grandmother have been convicted of manslaughter today.
Jordan aged 18 died at home, emaciated and with bed sores, having had no medical treatment.

Details of the court case in here - warning contains very distressing details.

I am struggling to understand how this could have happened. How the mother and grandmother could have failed to get medical attention, and also how Jordan just gave up and wasted away, when there were no apparent special needs, mental illness or specific health problems (as far as is known). Although surely he must have had some kind of undiagnosed mental illness or something.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a thread on Mumsnet about this case, it has been in national news, but not very high priority I suppose.

One of the strangest and saddest cases I have ever heard of.

Do we know for sure that Leeds LEA didn’t have contact with the family?

Interagency working really needs to improve, as I posted earlier in this thread I find it shocking that a child known to social services previously, who had been taken out of school was not flagged up. I do think Jordan was let down by the system.

Along with that: why wasn't the father charged? He had this recent photo on his phone. (For those who haven't seen it, it was taken a month before JB's death. Jordan B looks exactly like the people found in Belsen when the Allies liberated it: gaunt face, staring eyes, ribs showing.) The father knew, and he did nothing. (Now he is talking to the press and it's all everyone else's fault!)

The sister lived elsewhere but very close to the family home and was there virtually all day, every day. (They established it by looking at her phone records.) She was complicit.

I imagine the CPS wouldn’t take his case

This is just shocking. Outside of the home education argument (I am pro home ed. My cousin home educated all her children, two are now at Cambridge) someone must have known about this boy. There would be neighbours or friends.
Safeguarding is everyone’s business.
As for the experience up thread of being told off by the school for reporting a family, that is dreadful. I have been very clearly told that anyone can report.

Camel read posts by other autistics. Society excludes us, not on purpose, but by default because our needs are fundamentally different. Only 15% of autistic people work full time. Why do you suppose this is?

My youngest son can’t attend school due to his aspergers. He is constantly bullied for being ‘weird’. He’s educated at home.

It is absolutely possible for autistics to find themselves isolated within society. Add to that, the poverty due to not being able to work, difficulties with accessing healthcare - particularly mental health care - and constant criticism from people. Can you imagine what that actually feels like? It’s horrendous - and we’re a high functioning family.

Oh, and before anybody criticises, ds goes to an online secondary which follows the national curriculum and will be sitting international GCSEs.

Cerid you’re just proving the point that autism is a disorder. Nobody is denying that what you say is true

I suspect that there are major failings in this case, by loads of different agencies, dept's, staff, at old school,SS, HCP's, dept of Edu, all sorts.

Hopefully there'll be an enquiry.

The brain wiring isn’t disordered, it’s differently arranged which results in different cognitive processes

When you are categorising neurological networks in terms of their order of function and you have one brain that follows a 'typical' pathway and another which doesn't, then the one which doesn't is categorised as disordered. This can be true for a number of neurological disorders including Parkinson's, ASD, epilepsy, brain tumours -
anything which is not 'typical'. This is not a reflection on the individual and it does not mean that the person is disordered, it's using a medical model to categorise neurological pathways in a brain.

For instance, say someone without asd had a stroke; if you were trying to build a rehabilitation programme based on their brain pathways you would have to first understand that the persons brain pathway doesn't follow the typical pathways of someone without asd. From a medical perspective this is categorised as disordered - short hand for saying that the brain pathways for this person does not follow the typical medical model. It doesn't mean that this person can't function at a meaningful level, just that you may have to adapt their rehabilitation to suit how their brain is wired. I hope putting it into context helps it make more sense?

I meant someone with asd has a stroke

Worriedandsad so the abuse had become normalised and it took an outsider to see something was very wrong.

If whole sections of society think its ok for kids to have black teeth and smell its hopeless.

When you say " a local school for local families" I can imagine what you mean. All wrong.

Back to Jordan, I cannot bring myself to read the transcripts but no matter what difficulties the family had dont tell me they thought a starving young adult in nappies was acceptable.

I’m reading the transcripts through the websluths link up thread.
It seems that the dad didn’t realise the mum was pregnant until he came home from work one day to be told she had had a baby. He was living with her, sharing a bed. How can you not know?

The thing is Storm is that neurodiversity is inherited from our ancestors. There never was just one type of human being. The hominids around just interbred with each other and each developed their own brain types according to how they needed to survive. Neurodiversity comes from the cold adapted type of human beings who interbred with the incomers.

I think people who are seeking to label us really need to get up to speed with the latest thinking and research regarding neurodiversity.

But ASD isn’t only characterised by genetics, it is also a symptom of neglect, abuse and trauma in young children.

Oh, and I don’t like being patronised. I have a very good IQ and I’m a qualified HCP, so I really don’t need to be lectured to about pathways and strokes etc.

My brain is far from ‘disordered’ thanks.

No one is ‘lecturing’ you, Cerid or suggesting you are stupid.

Asd is a symptom of neglect, abuse and trauma in young children? Wtf, that is completely untrue!

You’re referring to attachment disorder?

Do you know the difference?

This is highly offensive!

No I’m not. I’m referring to ASD.

You think asd is caused by neglect and abuse?

You do realise that this is discredited rubbish don’t you?