Arthur Labinjo-Hughes *Very upsetting*

[HolidayHelper]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-59475076

Poor little boy. So utterly, utterly failed. He was TELLING figures of authority what was happening and nobody listened. How come whenever something like this happens they always roll out 'Lessons Will Be Learned'... but then they're not, in just goes and happens again? It makes me so fucking angry. I know there aren't enough foster carers, I know there's not enough money, but it was OBVIOUS what would happen in this case and nobody did a damn thing.

I wish and wish I was in a position to foster vulnerable children. Arthur could have had a completely different outcome if he could have been placed witha loving family.

BlossomingSlowly Apologies, typo!

@JoyOrbison thank you ❤️ That's exactly it, it's ridiculous. Underfunding and lack of basic services (police, social services etc.) is at the heart of the problem. I still think about the children left behind when I left my job. I had a colleague who told me one of her previous colleagues had to attend a serious child case review after the death of a child, and that he'd said it was the worst 2 weeks of his life. I hope I speak for all school staff when I say they care beyond belief about the happiness and safety of the children in their care. I'm sure all staff that worked with Arthur are absolutely heartbroken, as we all are, at the cruelty he suffered. 😔 It's lovely to hear that the local football teams are going to play tribute to him at the next game. He deserved all the love in the world ❤️

Blossom, it is so troubling to hear what you say, that reporting abuse goes nowhere because, in practice, authorities don’t step in at once, and the child is then in the position of having to go back straight back to the person they accused - meaning they will be even more vulnerable.

I read that one judge in the trial of Arthur’s real mother had thought she’d killed that other man in self-defence, but then another judge accused her of manipulation and that it hadn’t been self-defence. I wonder what the truth was.

Poor, poor child. If only he’d stayed with his grandparents.

What makes me absolutely retch about this too is referring to that creature as Arthur's stepmother. She is step nothing, just a random nutter picked up on a dating app by his dysfunctional and horrible father. Not his wife. Not Arthur's stepmother.

I begged for help when I was a teenager
Told multiple professionals what was happening to me and nobody did anything

Years later I got my notes and they had all documented what I was clearly saying and nobody acted on it

I am heartbroken by what happened to this beautiful boy. He was let down by the people who should have protected him.

As a mum who doesn't work in education. Social care or policing, what can I do to help stop this happening? I know I can report any suspicions of child abuse but even when social services were informed they did nothing.

Im fed up of the kids are best with their parents attitude, yes for the parents where they have a human punch bag available 24/7, not for the children.

Rest in peace beautiful angel xxx

“asdissues

I begged for help when I was a teenager
Told multiple professionals what was happening to me and nobody did anything

Years later I got my notes and they had all documented what I was clearly saying and nobody acted on it“

That is awful. I can only hope your life is better now.

@BlossomingSlowly

Simply horrific. The worst thing is, I can't say that I am surprised. I've worked in safeguarding roles in schools and can honestly say that the system is broken and far too soft. I kicked up a fuss as much as I possibly could about some of my suspicions about the abuse and neglect that was happening to children in our school. Social services continually told me there was 'not enough evidence' in every single case. Some of them were textbook cases of abuse. I went home on so many occasions with the fear of "what if that child is killed at home". When some of the vulnerable children didn't arrive at school I wondered to myself if the police would be coming to question us all about what we did and didn't do to protect them in the case that something awful had happened. I was told by senior staff that I couldn't write anything but facts in the safeguarding documents, meaning I couldn't write down my suspicious surrounding the facts (I ignored this and did it anyway). Honestly, I wish in my heart that I could have taken some of those children and given them the wonderful childhood they so desperately deserved. I think we need to accept that cases like Arthur's are happening all around us, but services are so restricted by red tape that nobody is allowed to do anything.

We had a child disclose to us that his mum had thrown him across the kitchen floor in anger. He showed us his bruises. He was 6 and I fully believed everything he said. He cried and didn't want mummy to be in trouble. I wanted to keep him in school where he was safe and not allow his mum to take him home until the police and social services had ensured that it was safe for him to go home. We were not legally allowed to prevent his mum from taking him home, and she took him home an hour later. Social services later concluded there was no risk.

I also had a girl disclose to me that her father, in her words, "abuses us". She detailed how he tried to strangle her, how he held her neck up against the wall, and much more. I followed protocol despite her literally begging me to not tell anyone else about this or her dad would be angry and she didn't want him to go to prison. She then completely shut down and would not repeat to anyone what she had said to me. I followed every rule in the book, yet was terrified knowing that, along with reporting to social services, the headteacher would have to call home and inform them of her allegations. She would then be sent home to the person she had accused of abusing her, pending social services involvement. She was terrified and so was I. I tried everything to see if there was any way we could do this without informing the family and putting her at further risk for "telling", but was told no and I had no legal power to change anything.

I'm so sorry, Arthur, and all the other little ones suffering. The system has failed you. I don't work in education or with children anymore. I'm not sure I could again unless things change.

This is appalling. Do they really 'have' to tell the parents?

There is nowhere to put children even if they are removed. all the systems-social services, police and education are all understaffed and not enough people want to work for them anymore. I feel for that boy, his wider family and all the people who will have reported concerns and weren’t acted on.

It did make me physically sick. He was obviously made to be the scapegoat for the family's anger. Of course kids can push our buttons but this was systematic abuse of the highest order. I haven't watched any of the video footage as I don't think I can bear it.

[quote BlossomingSlowly]@Plusfiftytwo Safeguarding is very switched on in most school and is hammered home at the beginning of every school year, with all staff having at least basic safeguarding training. The trouble is schools can report and report but social services and the police are exceptionally underfunded and understaffed, and evidence that will stand up in court is hard to get. Social services visits are often pre-arranged like in Arthur's case, and they only have so much power to dig into things. Funding, understaffing, lack of power and poor communication between police and social services is at the heart of the problems I believe. I absolutely understand that good parents would hate to be subject to a social services 'investigation' based on poor evidence, but for me, if you've nothing to hide then you've nothing to fear. A lot of people think that social services can take children away very easily, but in fact, in the 2 years I spent in two schools in very deprived areas, no child was ever taken away from their parents, even temporarily (much to the disgust of myself and colleagues who were genuinely concerned for the safety of certain children). It makes me so sad to say that we need to be tougher because some of the most horrific cases of neglect are in plain sight and schools' hands are completely tied. Yes social care needs to support people to be better parents and improve as opposed to just removing children, but there has to be a limit when evidence is overwhelming that the situation is damaging the child significantly and putting their safety at extreme risk.

Honestly it's so heartbreaking but I don't think many people understand the scale of the problem, it's absolutely huge 😔

To add, lack of proper funding in deprived areas also adds to the problem. Unemployment, alcohol addiction, drugs, poor mental health, loneliness and general lack of knowledge all add to the problem. I have to say I have met many parents who have hearts of gold but have been dealt a genuinely awful hand in life and need some extra support from social services to be the best parents they can be.[/quote]
Brilliant post.
I work in a health role that is within children's safeguarding. The sheer volume of work that children's social care are facing on a daily basis is overwhelming. It doesn't allow for the level of tenacity and analysis that the role requires.
Coupled with poor staff retention, poor staffing levels, and legal processes that seem to work against child protection, it's a toxic mix.
There will always, sadly, be cases like these. People who are actively harming their children, will also be actively concealing it.

I've followed this heartbreaking case and each time something new emerged, it broke my heart more. This case has stuck with me. I can't even describe how I feel about the scum who did this.
I wished that Arthur knew how much he was loved even by strangers and experienced the kindness that he should have been shown.

I will say this Arthur didn't stand a chance. Everyone is bleating about it after the facts. 1. The paternal step grandad said that he stopped the visit because it upset the paternal grandmother too much. That was the only bit of kindness being shown and if they thought they couldn't handle it- how did they think HE FELT living it daily!!!

1. The uncle should have risked covid arrest then gone to the papers with his reasons why he was breaking the rules in the first place.

1. Both sides of the family are arguing about who gets to lay him to rest. Honestly I think the dad's side should have no say as it was their monster of a son who killed him.

I could go on about the mother who didn't care enough to not have him be removed from her care. I'm not talking about her experiencing abuse. I'm talking about getting the necessary support to fight her addictions for her son's sake.

I even feel sorry for the poor other kids who witnessed the abuse. To "normalise" that level of abuse meant that they became desensitized. They will need extreme support to live a normal life.

Lessons are never, ever learned. My dh’s niece and nephew are now 30 and 32, they were neglected and abused as children by their own mother. At 9 his niece would have to go and steal biscuits from the corner shop to feed dh’s nephew and her 4 and 5 years old half brother and sister as their drug addict mother had left them all day to go sleep with men to get money for drugs. We pleaded and pleaded with the authorities to help but they had given her full custody. We would give them food but they would get a beating if they touched it as she would eat it all and say we had given it to her and not them.
They were failed and so was darling Arthur and sadly all the other darling children that this is currently happening to as we type.
It makes me want to weep.
I just wish we had the death penalty in this country or better still public hangings as I for one would be happy to watch these evil bastards leave this earth.

I don’t believe in the death penalty, but in this case I hope very sincerely she gets a lot more than salt thrown her way in prison. If I was locked away with her and already on a life sentence I know what I’d do.

@ScrollingLeaves

“asdissues

I begged for help when I was a teenager
Told multiple professionals what was happening to me and nobody did anything

Years later I got my notes and they had all documented what I was clearly saying and nobody acted on it“

That is awful. I can only hope your life is better now.

Yes, I’m ok now but i wasn’t for over 2 decades. I actually had a breakdown when o read my notes I think I’d held it all in for so long and I believed that maybe everyone just either didn’t hear me , or that they tried to help but nothing came of it. To see in black and white by so many professionals my pleas for help heard, recorded and documented and ignored was awful and I had a complete breakdown as felt that not only was I abused and failed by my mother I was also failed by every person I reached out to Some of them were taken in by my mother and they’d asked her about the allegations and I was described as a wayward teen, a liar telling stories to ruin the family etc and of course being wealthy with a nice tidy house and a nice car and posh accent of course she was believed

You're so right OP. In my job we're told that we need to get the 'voice of the child' and listen to their lived experience. Arthur was telling everyone loud and clear that his dad was going to kill him, and no-one listened. He must have felt so utterly desolate, poor little love. It's heartbreaking.

“asdissues
Yes, I’m ok now but i wasn’t for over 2 decades.
I actually had a breakdown when o read my notes I think I’d held it all in for so long and I believed that maybe everyone just either didn’t hear me , or that they tried to help but nothing came of it. To see in black and white by so many professionals my pleas for help heard, recorded and documented and ignored was awful and I had a complete breakdown as felt that not only was I abused and failed by my mother I was also failed by every person I reached out to
Some of them were taken in by my mother and they’d asked her about the allegations and I was described as a wayward teen, a liar telling stories to ruin the family etc and of course being wealthy with a nice tidy house and a nice car and posh “

That is so sad. I am glad you are ok now. ‘Posh’ households can be completely dysfunctional and perhaps cut off from the wider world sometimes, as well as being apparently perfect.

I can imagine how it was reading your notes and seeing how the belief, that someone somewhere would have at least tried to help even if they had failed, had been false.
Was there something in particular that helped you in the end?

I just heard on the news that people are thinking the sentences were too lenient and the case is being referred to the Attorney General.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-59532071
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-59532071.amp

And summing up taking place in another trial. www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/19757128.live-updates-star-hobson-murder-trial-day-31/

www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-petition-to-have-arthur-labinjo-hughes-killers-given-a-whole-life-order?signed=true

I can’t stop thinking about this, the more background I see about the case (metro.co.uk/2021/12/03/arthur-labinjo-hughes-mum-pays-tribute-to-murdered-son-from-prison-cell-15708220/) the more I can’t comprehend how social services weren’t ALREADY fully involved in Arthur’s life well before he went to live with his Dad and that woman?
Such an awful, complex situation with drink and drugs and violence, then he loses his mum to a prison sentence - how was he not having support around him just for this alone? It shouldn’t have been down to family members to be reporting their concerns - the fact that they did, and were ignored is another level of appalling - but social services etc should have already had this poor little boy on their radar.

You just have to conclude social care in this country is in a mess - where is the humanity and the continuity of care?

I can only triangulate this with my own experiences of maternity care, mental health care and community health care and conclude that, for all the valiant heroes fighting to do good in a broken system, there are also a lot of officious jobsworths in social care who quite enjoy holding power over vulnerable people and gate-keeping services.

The system needs to fundamentally change. Our priorities as a society are so out of whack - if we can’t care for each other and the planet, what can we hope to offer even our own loved and supported children as a future, never mind the most vulnerable ones?

www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/19760810.parents-spared-jail-covering-10-week-old-babys-broken-leg/?fbclid=IwAR3pbZECrTF2yq3bbeGQl4uD0NolEHYJ2_wYXkM9paKGrbjiLDEUFWMjLiw

It's actually insulting to the public that the courts still use the term 'life' sentence, when it clearly does not mean that anymore. These people will still be of an age to carry on abuse and torture when they get out.