Leiland James Corkhill - heartbreaking interview with his birth mum. Obviously upsetting content relating to physical abuse of a baby.

[LastThursdayInJuly]

I can’t post the link but if you Google Leiland James and BBC news the interview will come up.

Of course, some children can’t stay safely with their parents but this case really doesn’t seem one of them. I’m not commenting on what happened to Leiland James afterwards because it’s obviously practically unheard of for adoptive parents to murder their children.

But I am concerned that people like Laura Corkhill are not treated fairly by SS and are not really able to navigate the system properly. I also agree with the woman who observed that it further punished women suffering domestic abuse by taking their children from them.

www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/20177878.cumberland-ahead-game-childrens-services-overhaul/

There’s some hopeful news in this article, but the will (not to mention the money) needs to be there too and I hope the smaller authorities from April will facilitate the overhaul.
I think it was an authority in the North East who rebuilt their Childrens Services from the ground up. A small team of experienced SWs who recruited and guided newly qualified SWs from a variety of backgrounds to deliver a radically different service to what went before. I’ve had a quick Google but I can’t find it right now and have to go out - maybe someone knows the area I’m talking about?

Aprreciate the difficulties the geography of the area throws in the way of change wrt recruitment, however. The NHS also faces the same challenges there.

Mother’s do not like being forced to attend these courses! You people are acting like they’re happy to go along and be educated

what you don’t know is they are often repeating the patterns of their own childhood. Being attracted to abusive men. Living with abuse is not as shocking to them as you might think.

they don’t understand that the pattern is repeating itself. They don’t understand that little Johnny who’s witnessed multiple fights is highly likely to go on and beat his own future wife and expose his own kids to abuse and so the cycle repeats.

they say ‘oh but Johnny was asleep he didn’t hear’

no Johnny was awake and terrified in his bed you fools!!! Or Johnny may be asleep but he witnesses the abusive verbal dynamic!!

If he comes to her house she should call the police! If she doesn’t and he’s allowed in and the kids tell SW ‘daddy was at our house’ well then that’s on her!

It’s this kind of jaded unsympathetic attitude that makes me not understand or sympathise with SWs. Also makes me think they absolutely don’t understand the complexities and power of abuse. If only it was a easy for everyone to call the police! If only every victim was so confident against her abuser, the man who has a powerful hold on her. A man who may well threaten to hurt her family/release the Nudes he has of her/spill her secret/tell SS that she wants him back, if she doesn’t let him in.

But hey I guess that’s on her

Women truly are fucked. If you’re a victim, you’re fucked. No wonder women don’t report it. No wonder there’s a cycle when victim blaming is so bloody prevelant

This is all part of a system that supports abusive men too let’s not forget!

however we don’t know that was the case here but we know her child was removed because she was involved with DV.

Your language tells me EVERYTHING I need to know. You don’t see her as a victim - she was ‘involved’ in DV. A woman beaten so badly she miscarried is someone ‘involved’. She’s part of it, not a casualty of it.

How do you get to a point where you victim blame to this extent?

we know she went on to have a child with another abuser. Possibly the same abuser.

We don’t know that at all - she was single during pregnancy.

Mother’s do not like being forced to attend these courses! You people are acting like they’re happy to go along and be educated

of course they don’t!! You expect them to jump for joy at having to be forced to do something that’s time consuming, distressing and in their opinion something they don’t need?

Another SWer problem - stop expecting everybody to be over the moon that you’re in their lives.

Deluded isn’t even the word

what you don’t know is they are often repeating the patterns of their own childhood. Being attracted to abusive men. Living with abuse is not as shocking to them as you might think.

And yet they are demonised, expected to just go ‘ping’ and instantly shirk off all their traumas, memories, Norms and socialisation, and not be ‘attractive to abusers’.

Why do SWers never think the solution is to support women in the first place.

like I say - deluded to the extreme

I wonder how normal a background the adoptive mum had from the way she described "leathering" a baby. She wasn't even using euphemisms like "gave him a firm tap" she was talking about the abuse like it was something she considered normal.

Yes that’s how serious your situation has become. You must call the police to demonstrate to the authorities that you will do whatever is necessary to keep your children away from the toxic dynamic of your relationship.

you say that women are not supported - how do you know that SW aren’t supporting them? Referring them to other agencies? You don’t!

and if you listen to the mother’s interview she said the baby was removed due to the risk of emotional harm by domestic violence.

and of course these men are dangerous and the women are terrified - that’s why there are safe houses, refuges etc.

but you should understand there are many women who do not protect their children, that these children witness a beating or twenty before they are removed. Believe it when I say they will have been offered support & advice and understand some of them ignore it willingly as they think it’s all bollocks because the kids are fine seeing what goes on!

educating these women is not as simple as you think! Also yes if you’ve lost your kids and another abuser walks into your life and you get pregnant by him yes it is expected that you go ‘ping’ or you might face the consequences

I believe this was Sunderland Children's services. They were rated inadequate in 2016 and outstanding 3 years later.

Poor child. Failed by so many in so short a time.

I agree with the concern on about how people like the birth mother are treated and that there will likely be no review or be 'lessons identified' for that, even if it's just in how she was treated after the child's death.

As much as we can list off what should happen to protect her, this is a failing area and good protocols by multiple agencies weren't followed in what we have publically, which leads to concerns to how they weren't followed in what we don't have. Saying this will have happened or they will do that ignores that.

I've always had a good relationship with my local SS team, but I have seen where the weak links between agencies and the bias within particular spaces means we're failing families and the most vulnerable, like little Leiland-James.

I don't agree on the it’s obviously practically unheard of for adoptive parents to murder their children as I can think of many cases, largely in situations where there was poor oversight of adoption with many of the failings seen in this case. The UK is generally does well with that in recent years, but it's something we have to remain vigilant about/

Given that his DF isn't mentioned we can only assume he was violent/ in prison etc.

Why can we only assume that? I thought it was more likely it was a short relationship/one night stand & he either isn't involved, possibly in a mutually agreed way, or was never told or she might not know. Jumping to that says more about your bias than what options are available.

what you don’t know is they are often repeating the patterns of their own childhood. Being attracted to abusive men. Living with abuse is not as shocking to them as you might think.

Actually, this is debated and the evidence for this concept may not be as strong as you think it is. Many think it's outdated and misogynistic.

This rhetoric generally ignores that there are plenty of survivors of chaotic childhood upbringings and child domestic abuse who don't go on to have abusive relationships as adults - it perpetuates the damaging ideas that we're broken and always will be - and that there are people from fine upbringings who also have multiple abusive relationships. It makes no acknowledgement of how common abusive partners are or how our systems often support abusers and puts barriers in the way of victims.

www.mysocialworknews.com/article/social-workers-cannot-take-the-blame-every-time-someone-kills-a-child?fbclid=IwAR3yUvSweiOdsEcqdFHt2CmThFe2ajbkyAnZ7cH-KAOPyN0A0WEcrSrEcKQ

Interesting read

What a horribly self pitying article.

There is definitely a distinct marker of SWs - they never, ever think they’re wrong. Everyone else is assumed to be wrong/evil/like all the others before them. But THEY are never wrong. Even when caught red handed, they are never wrong, never apologise, say ‘we don’t have a crystal ball’ but also ‘we don’t know what’s happening now’. That article ignores the many failings in the review and the many recommendations for improvement.

Given that his DF isn't mentioned we can only assume he was violent/ in prison etc.

Why can we only assume that?

Because that’s what SWs do best - make assumptions. Assumptions based on other people who are strangers to the people they’re assessing, assumptions that everyone behaves badly, that every female victim of DV is a silly cow who let her OH beat her and will probably go back because that’s what those pesky victims do. Why ignore facts and individuality when you can just take the lazy route and make assumptions?

Do you realise that many SWs help children and their mums safely escape their abusers, focusing on keeping the mum and kids together as a unit as that is the preferable outcome wherever possible and priority pathway they will attempt?

You're dismissing swathes of hard working SWs who save children's lives and help their mums on the path to a safe future too, by helping keep them together as a family unit minus the abuser.

Thank you @mossberry , that’s the one I was thinking of. It was a root and branch overhaul of the whole system and really impressive how they’ve changed things in that region.

I've never seen a post with so much irony.

The only person making assumptions is you.

you are projecting a lot of anger here.

Damned if they do, damned if they dont social workers. If they hadnt taken him and something had happened their names would have been all in the papers again. There is no proof the birth mum would have coped.

The fault was that the info on the adoptive mum about her drinking was kept from them. They claim not to know the adoptive mum was bad tempered and liked a drink. Cant understand why the adoptive mum wanted him. She didnt need to adopt be better if she hadnt.

Feel sorry for the little boy in all this. He died because all the adults messed up.

The way she spoke to her husband in texts about him too was awful. Dont these idiots know that police can look at their phones etc today.

God only knows why she wanted to adopt?

Maybe they just think they’ll never get caught.

How Scott Castle walked free I’ll never know.

Some of his text messages:

[In response to Laura saying she was hitting the child too much] - “you aren't failing, baby, I think you're doing an amazing job."

[Referring to LJ and their fostering experience]: “He's really ruined it. At least we have tried."

[In response to her saying she’s leathered LJ and she abusive]: “Your not an abusive parent, baby. Not at all.”

Not to mention that doctors said his injuries were similar of those having been in a high speed car accident, there no way he couldn’t have known the extent of the beatings.

If that’s not an enabling psychopath I don’t know what is

I’d love to pick the jurors brains and find out why they didn’t think he was an accessory to this murder.

My guess is because he’s a man. If the tables had been turned and it was Scott beating the child and Laura enabling and condoning his behaviour, she’d be more hated than him no doubt.

Scott Castle also messaged “"Maybe a good hard smack might change that. LOL"

Yet he ‘bears no responsibility’ for what happened the Leiland James. He apparently didn’t know.

www.itv.com/news/border/2022-05-13/husband-of-woman-accused-of-murdering-one-year-old-bears-no-responsibility

How the ever FUCK have they come to that conclusions?!

Granted that LJ’s injuries were so extent, I’m wondering why it isn’t in the review as to why SS never noticed bruises. We know they beat LJ over a long period, how was this never picked up on?!

what you mean when the child dies and goes to hospital they think they will get away with saying its an injury.

yes beggars belief how he got off. He could have stopped it.

So dumb as well sending texts to each other. Police always seize phones and look at them.