Horrible story - child poisoned with salt.

[Tinker]

here

Just shocking How can eople be so cruel to children?

poor thing never reaaly stood a chance did he ?

This case has been going on for weeks, I don't understand why it's taken so long.

Why were they ever approved for adoption?

Poor little boy.

This is absolutely awful. Poor little boy. Am I right in thinking he had siblings as well? Why on earth would those people apply for adopting children, view vidoes on the damaging effects of neglect and then murder a toddler? Of course a child how has come from an abusvie background may display behavioural and relationship difficulties, all the more reason to give them a stable constant home.

I cride when i read this article and i know i shouldnt swear but what f*king twisted basards.

Sorry, just find this really upsetting.

It's the phrase about the child died when he "failed to meet their expectations of family living". Made my blood run cold. Poor little boy.

The father complained about him within a few days, because the child had "rejected him" - why would he expect to be accepted within a few days??? Don't they do endless pre-adoption counselling any more? It sounds as if the children were handed over and that was it.

Heads will roll at social services again.

Message withdrawn

wtf were thier expectations?? As they havent met societies expectations of humanity should they be poisoned?

JanH.. ? How can he expect a child to embrace him as 'daddy' or an important figure straight away? For a child that acceptance and love needs to be earned esp in these circumstances. What an utter egotistical sadistic fu~~wit

It does sound awful, but given the courts' record for falsely convicting people of killing or trying to kill their children, I have to remain a little suspicious of the whole thing.
There is a little red flag raised in my mind when they say that evidence of abuse was that NO child would ever consume 4 teaspoons of salt voluntarily...they clearly have not met my ds. I obviously would not let him consume that amount of salt, but he quite happily would if left to his own devices....
I also have to question whether ss were telling the truth about what the father said about the child. They (ss) have been known to lie before to get out of trouble. What on earth were they doing placing 3 under 3 children with special needs with a couple that had no experience with children and full time jobs?
I wonder if anyone might have any more information rather than what the press is reporting.

Special needs, Sofia?

awful just awful, as for them saying in their defence they didn't think 4 spoons of salt would harm the child, HELLO?

As well as the horrible story, I found it scary how little salt can poison a three year old. Like Sophia's ds, my dd seems fascinated by the stuff and regularly gets herself into a right tantrum because I won't let her have more than a little taste.

I remember a case a few years ago when a child died from consuming excess salt. The tragic thing was is that it was an accident as the parents had been weaning the baby on ReadyBrek not realising the high levels of salt in it. At the time I didnt know either and would have thought that it was an ideal cereal for babies. So sad.

And Roy Meadow went out of his way to force as much salt as possible into the child of one of the women accused of MSBP to see if it could be done...

here

and here

The second article states - Mrs Gay told police: "I was panicky and just thought we had to get him to hospital. We did not think of calling an ambulance, it was a gut instinct to get him to hospital and help."

If they wanted to get him to hospital, why didn't they take him to the nearer hospital which is only 15 miles away, instead of one 27 miles away? The nearer hospital is also easier to get to.

so sad poor little boy...why does this have to happen...SS should have been offering more constant support to the family instead of placing 3 children in their care

Radio report I heard today (I think, but am not sure that it included an interview with a policeman involved in the case) referred to the children as special needs children. When my ds was very ill as a baby, I took him myself to the hospital as I wouldn't have trusted an ambulance to arrive in time. AND I took him to a hospital that was twice the distance from our home than the nearest hospital because I knew they had a very good paediatric a&e and had already had a bad experience at our nearest hospital....
I don't know any more about this case than what I hear on the news, but I do know that you can't always believe everything you read in the papers and certainly can't believe most of what ss says.

My father knows the social worker who placed the children (brother and sister) with these evil people. Apparently the foster parents, who had been looking after these children since the youngest was a baby, adored them and wanted to adopt them. But turned down as too old. Clearly middle-class couple with big house and cars who had no clue about what children are like (and how traumatised they might be after being taken from the only parents they knew, and loved) were much more suitable. Not.
Social worker apparently very traumatised. Not as traumatised as foster parents, I bet.

edam, one of the pieces I've read today said that they nearly got divorced in the mid-90s because he wanted children and she didn't; got back together on the very brink, these kids were for him, not her (can't believe her father saying she would have been the perfect mother!) and she had the cheek to tell the jury that it was her dream to be called mummy.

Poor poor foster family.

God. I just can't get over the fact that they were taken away from loving foster parents, who had proved that they could care for these children and wanted to adopt them, and given to these appalling people. I can't begin to imagine how the foster parents are coping.

I hope the social services department change their policy so children aren't taken away from good, loving parents who want to adopt them in future. I can see why they'd be concerned about adoptive parents being older (apparently the foster parents were in their 50s) but doesn't love, and proven ability to care for children, count for anything? My mother's parents were in their mid-40s when they adopted her. Wouldn't happen these days I suspect. And they adored her and she them. Yes, they died when she was in her early 20s, and that was a terrible loss. But she was loved and she loved them and had a fantastic childhood.

I don't know what it is about this particular tragic story but seeing Christian's smiling face on the front pages of all the papers on the train this morning has upset me really deeply. I can't bear to think about it. How on earth did this wicked couple get through the adoption approval process?

I agree with all that has been said. This is Very sad. I am sad that we live in a world where child abuse does exist, but it does and we should all be alert as to this.
I think it is awful that the children were removed from loving Foster Parents and placed with this couple, it had as we know tragic consequences. I am sorry to say that it is not the first time that I have heard this happening.

I do not think that there can be a 'good' side to this story, but there is something positive that I have noticed.

I am not sure whether this is because the Adoptive Father appeared more to blame, or whether it is due to preassure on the press to call child abuse what it is, not use fancy names or syndromes like Munchausen-Syndrome-by-Proxy (MSbP.
I believe that had it been the mother who was to take all the blame and had it not been for public awareness over the false diagnosis of MSbP, this prospective, Adoptive Mother would have been accused of having MSbP, as it was one of Meadow's 'pet' theories (there are several natural illnesses that cause elevated sodium levels, without knowing more I can not comment on this), however to me it is an advance forward that they are calling it what it is, and that is poisoning, and not MSbP. I am just so sorry and sad that it has taken the death of a child before this situation occurred.

I think you would be very surprised at what couples are approved for adoption. I am not talking about Gay couples or those of an ethnic minority, but so called white, middle class people. I know this is not Politically correct to say and I apologise, I mean no offence.