Britains crueliest parents OMG!

[mieow]

link{http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004542501,00.html\here}

According to the Mail the eldest girl did go to school where the teachers "noticed she smelled, was dirty, often wore no underwear and had marks under her eyes through tiredness". It also says that the health visitor saw nothing wrong so presumably they weren't kept locked away.

If this is true then I find it beyond belief that anyone, let alone a 'trained professional'could fail to spot signs of such terrible neglect. I can't bear to think what those poor little mites went through but it seems that others (the so-called relatives)were able to witness it and turn a blind eye. I agree with an earlier poster who said that they should be prosecuted as well.

I am beginning to think that there should be regular enforced checks on children in their homes. Our HV has big problems with families who will not let her in when she calls and this is not currently enforceable. She has to leave houses unvisited when she knows that children could be at risk there. What kind of world is this? All that people seem to care about is having and spending more and more. I have to say that policeman is WRONG - this would never happen in Ethiopia - there is terrible poverty but family units function far better than they do here. Sorry, ranting...

Horrible story, and does raise the issue of how far others are responsible for what was happening to these children. I'm not sure if the other relatives should be prosecuted, it's amazing what people can not see when they're in denial/ unsure about stuff. Who else should be prosecuted? The teachers who didn't do anything about the so clearly neglected little girl in their classroom? And what about the neighbours? At the end of the day, the parents who were in charge of the children are responsible for what they did, no one else, and I think it's very dangerous to blame other people for their behaviour.

Message withdrawn

I agree mieow, why didnt the re;latives call SS?? :9

god its just so awfil

They will have a bad time in prison I would think. I only know about male prisons really, but from what I can gather the minute the inamtes find out what he's in for (and they will do quickly) then the other inmates will make his life hell.

Let's hope both of them get put on basics for as long as possible, although even that is better than their children got and far more than they could ever deserve.

Wonder where they have gone to? If it is local or not?

So long as I don't have to teach him

what annoys me the most, is I have raised my kids to be heathly (I have reports that say my kids are healthy, pink, and well nutrited) I encourage them to do things that I didn't, all my children can play cbeebies!! Ds can read very well. And I still got reported to SS!! For letting DD2 drink priton (she managed to open the bottle) The social worker came round done the inital assessment, and said he would be closing her file as there was nothing wrong here.

I agree, how can the family have permitted this to happen? How can it have been allowed to go this far? Bless those poor kids. they're not gonna know what's hit them - clean clothes, food, clean beds, probably a bed each for the 1st time. The eldest especially - what a weight to be taken from her shoulders. Hope they have not been damaged irreversibly by this horror.

I used to work in a school where there were very many cases of neglect, of older siblings having to look after the younger children, children smelling. children (this is secondary school btw) not knowing how to use cutlery - eating beans with their fingers, beatings for being bad - beatings for being good, you name it. my boss had to make a home visit to a particularly difficult truant & the way he described the 'home' was similar to the newspaper report here - urine soaked matresses & settees, excrement smeared on the walls, he said he was there for over an hour and didn't dare touch any surface the whole time, it was so rank. This poor kid had 5 other siblings. they were known to ss, they regularly played truant, or would it be more accurate to say they rarely attended school. At the age of 12 he couldn't even write his own name ffs. I just can't understand how they were permitted to stay there. It makes my flesh crawl to think of it.

I'm not saying that relatives should always be prosecuted, just in this case. Surely there is a difference between someone who suspects abuse but doesn't realise how serious it is, and someone who witnesses the full extent of it first hand and does nothing? Apparently these people babysat so they must have seen the conditions the children were living in.

I was told about this case when my dp got home from work, as I haven't seen the tv all day.
How can a child have maggots coming out of their rectum and any adult, never mind the parents, not immediatly want to do something about it? I cannot even imagine how much discomfort that poor baby must have been in. I didn't even know that it was physicaly possible

The family may well have been only marginally more responsible or understanding than the parentss. That is the case with the child in foster care I mentioned further down, she is the product of incest, the mother has extreme learning difficulties as do other siblings, the grandparents have alcohol and mental problems. Yet the guidelines are that the baby is better off with the mother as far as possible, the foster mother has her screaming and clinging to stay when it is time to go back, it's heartbreaking.
I am amazed that the school didn't report something though.
I remember thinking at the time of James Bulger's murder, that I would always interfere and risk being a busybody. I still think about how awful that woman who stopped the boys then let them go must feel.

Don't get me started on this, i am so angry and upset. WHY on earth have children if you plan to treat them like this? I can't believe they got only 7 years each. They should be locked up for much longer and definitely should be sterilised before release.

I remember this case first hitting the news and if I recall correctly the twins were 18 months and the youngest weighed 8 - 9lbs. Apparantly a HV made a home visit and did not find anything afoot, I cannot get my head round that. I jsut cannot understand how a child can gain little or no weight over 18 months of his life and it go unchecked. The child welfare system has a lot to answer for.

As for the American baby, it is horrific but she was suffering from post partum psychosis (the same condition as the mother who killed her child by 'cooking' the baby in the oven). Anotehr case of a person slipping through the neck as the mother should have been under observation when she was suffering from a severe mental illness and caring for a child.

Sad, sad, sad.

nasty, evil bs. lock them in a room with a load of parents and let them do as they will i say. what a pity punishment doesnt fit the crime. US story...i just have no words. dont even want to think about it.

slipping through the NET even - doh!

Joan Smith writes a good article about this in today's Indie. (Can't do a link, need to pay for it) But, essentially, this family were at risk as soon as the mother had her first child at 15. Am not saying all teenage mothers go on to have problematic lives. Someone should have been helping her then to ensure she didn't just continue to get pregnant - she has a history of miscarriages and terminations.

WestCountryLass... I was chatting with my friend yesterday about how I can feel sorry for and almost understand the extreme confusion behind the woman who put the baby in the oven... you know there's like a tangible if very unwell/confused reason for mixing things up so much that that would happen, but I just can't get my head around the erm 'arms' woman ... and the people who did this to their children, it's just horrendous!! There was no mental illness, I agree with the person who said that they should be put in a room full of other parents!!

Please don't start on the teenage mother bit...pleeeeease lol

I wasn't. Joan Smith was saying that it appears that this particular person seems to have had not been helped at an early stage after getting pregnant at 15 and going on to have repeated conceptions.

Please don't start on the "they should be put in a room full of other parents!!"

Just checking because I can't help jumping into the teenage mother threads, and I don't like to because I get riled up! That's all..

I must have missed this. Just read it and I am shocked beyond words. Why do people bother to have children if they are not going to look after them. Why do people like this always have lots of children when they know that they struggle to look after one?

This should not be happening in 21st century Britain but you know what, it is still happening and will always happen because some people are just plain evil.

Definitely think there was a dereliction of duty on the part of the 8 year old's school. Teachers have a DUTY to report negligence (and I believe this applies morally all concerned adults).

fastasleep

I know what you mean, in fact when I read about the baby in the oven case I researched more into post partum psychosis as I wanted to understand the condition.

What I learned was often the mother is directed by ideas of grandeur, delusions and hallucinations.

It is a terrible condition and fortunately a rare one.

SORRY - THIS IS ANOTHER LONG ONE.

I agree with most of what everyone else has said here, except when people ask why the relative didn't do anything - I'd like to play devils advocate and say that maybe they did. SS's do not always act on reports.

In my case, I had severe concerns about my grandson. He and his parents moved out of my home when the baby was just over 2 1/2 months old. I told his parents that I was very concerned about the way his father treated him and would be passing my concerns on to SS. I called SS the day they left to move into their own home and gave a list of things that I had observed, dealt with and prevented during their time here. Two social workers came to the house to discuss what I had told them, it turned out that they knew grandsons father and said that they were very concerned about the baby.

Later that day - We were also told that they had visited the baby and his parents and because of their concerns would make twice weekly visits to ensure he was well and that his parents had any support needs met. I wasn't happy with this - but it was better than nothing.

Over the next nine weeks, DD would visit us almost daily, bringing the baby with her. Although he appeared healthy and lively, he wasn't growing. I asked my daughter on several occasions what her HV had said about baby's size - she produced her 'baby book' he had been to see the HV on regular occasions and she had repeatedly marked his weight and height on his growth centile charts - making it obvious that the baby had dropped by a centile over such a short period. Although I was obviously concerned, the HV refused to discuss anything with me, but simply said that the baby was healthy just small.

When baby was 5 months old - DD brought him to our house and his face was covered in bruises. His dad had been taking care of him the previous day as DD was ill - and claimed that baby had been laid on a cellular blanket resulting in the marks. I insisted on taking him to the hospital, pointing out that as soon as a doctor saw him, he would be referred to SS - DD flatly refused and got baby ready to go home. I told her that I had no choice but to report this to the SS. She went home and I called SS. I explained the situation and said that baby had a social worker who had been visiting and supporting the family for around nine weeks.

Turns out that the SS had actually "...lied to self and DH to shut us up." (their actual words). Even though they knew baby's father and his violent and abusive history, they assumed that we were "interfering grandparents" (again, their actual words) and left it at that. The baby had no social worker..they'd told his parents that he didn't need one.

Emergency duty officer went straight to house, after some refusal to let her see the baby - she got access and baby ended up being taken into hospital, turned out he also had a chest fracture and under the bruising on his face - fingerprints coule be seen quite clearly.

SO - it is possible that these people could have been reported to the SS at some point - the SS may not have been 'arsed' to do anything about it.

and they had not been feeding him between the hours of 6 in the evening and 10 in the morning as his dad insisted that he was to old to be fed in the night - that's why he wasn't growing.