Horrible story - child poisoned with salt.

[Tinker]

here

I suspect they wanted the babies, not the 'damaged' older child, but knew they couldn't adopt the two babies without him. Then decided to get rid of him so they could keep the babies. Truly, truly horrible. They were spectacularly beautiful boys. I saw a picture of Christian and he had a wonderful, alert and inquiring expression. You could tell instantly that he was NOT a 'vegetable' or whatever horrible phrase his killer used.

He was a beautiful boy, I haven't seen pictures of the others but yes, he certainly was lovely and he looked bright and healthy and happy.

Message withdrawn

I can't understand why alarm bells didn't deafen social services when he rang up and complained about the child not being up to his exacting standards.

The fact that he could describe the child as a vegetable, with the other things he said, should have been enough to alert them to the fact that these people were deeply unsuitable to be in charge of a damaged child, however rich and however white.

Very, very sad story ]

According to a report I saw, they fed Christian the salt in food and drinks after he threw his dinner on the floor. He also apparently had 12 brain contusions so it doesn't even seem to have been a moment of madness on their part.

Another thing I've been thinking of; we don't know why the children were removed from their birth mother in the first place - maybe she gave them up voluntarily for whatever reason - and now she has to deal with the fact one of them has been killed by the very people who should have loved and cherished him. It's just awful, poor little poppet.

Oh no, it wasn't exactly voluntary, suedonim - she is very upset and angry about what has happened to him, but he was her 2nd child, the first was taken away too as well as the 3rd and 4th, her mother is very unimpressed with her and said she was only interested in having a good time...it's worst for the grandmother from what I've seen reported.

This report from the Telegraph has a bit about his mother and grandmother and there was another one with more detail, will see if I can find it.

This one has a couple of those lovely pictures of him too

From the Times:

This is truely dreadful.

It's wicked and evil what some people will do to poor poor little souls who can't fight back

Am in tears thinking of dd aged 3 and just imagining what he went through

Oh, that's so sad, Jan. I admit, I haven't yet read the paper today (or yesterday's)so hadn't seen any mention of the natural mother. The granny sounds to be a poor soul, and I guess however bad the mother was, she didn't wish her child dead. The whole thing, along with this story has made me feel very sad today.

Oh that one has been breaking my heart since I first heard about them, suedonim - I am very glad that at least they have found the final body now but can you imagine what they went through?

Why did they make a run for it? Couldn't they have turned to a neighbour with a house on higher ground? That causeway wasn't safe in bad weather, and it was exceptionally bad. Poor people.

This case really saddens me, not only because of what that evil couple did to Christian, but also because it happened more or less on my door step.

For what it's worth I don't think Social Services are to blame, but yes they do need to look at their procedures. From what I have read in the various articles linked to on this page, I think the social worker concerned did as much as she could do and I don't think anything has been 'made up'. I have had first hand experience of Social Workers. My sister and I were taken into care because we were abused by our step-father, and I can honestly say that they did absolutely everything they could to make sure we were placed in a childrens home that was suitable for us. I was there until I was 18½, I was allowed to stay beyond my 18th birthday to give me time to find somewhere to live, I already had a permanent job.

JanH - The couple had split up and remarried. Agree about the special needs.

SofiaAmes - I wasn't questioning why they didn't call an ambulance. I was questioning why they didn't take him to the nearest perfectly acceptable hospital. I know this hospital is perfectly acceptable as I have taken my own son to a&e there, and, given birth to my 3rd child there. You obviously had good reason to take your son to a hospital further away, but from the evidence I have seen, (yes, I know you can't always believe what you read in the press) there is nothing to suggest that they knew that one hospital was any better than the other.

Last point/question - If you were hoping to adopt a child, would you return to work while he was seriously ill in hospital? Even after you had assured SS that you would take several months off.

That's me done, I hope they rot in hell!!

From what I've seen in the local press, Jan, they lived right on the coast themselves in an exposed area and were trying to get to a nearby grandparent's house on higher ground. Apparently the storm was unbelievably ferocious, no one had ever experienced anything like it before so maybe they just took fright. Another 10yards and they would have been safe.

I am in no way making any excuses for the Natural or birth Mothers neglect of her children. But please try and remember she was very young.
I find myself asking why did her mother, the Grandmother not help her daughter with the baby as she was only 16.
It sounds like to me that the mother daughter relationship must have broken down at some point and the natural mother did not get any support from her family. I realise that this is speculation, but I would not take what the Grandmother says about her daughter as necessarily accurate.
The birth Mother is reported as 'having taken it badly' and was at the hospital with Christian in her arms when the life support machine was turned off. I think that she must have terrible feelings of guilt, not only for her supposed neglect of him, but the fact is she would have expected in him being adopted that he would be safe with a loving family. I am afraid that I think the Natural mother is going to need a lot of support now, it is just a shame that she did not (again a presumption) get that support when she needed it and when she was a teenage mother. This whole story really makes me very sad.

I agree Bunglie. This poor girl was 16 years old, FFS, and Christian might not have been very well off with her, but she didn't kill him, did she? And her mother's comments about her say more about her ability to be supportive of her daughter than about her daughter's competence as a mother.

The sad thing is, because presumably this young woman had stopped being Christian's legal mother, I doubt if she will get any state support at all to deal with this tragedy.

It is just all so sad.

So many lives 'damaged' and only 5 years in prison. Something is very wrong somewhere.

You put it better than me Caligula.

It is all just horrible and his birth family must be wrecked, but it takes two to have a supportive relationship. Teenage girls can be bloody hard work and she probably resisted and resented any "interference" from her mother - the baby she had before Christian is with somebody else too, after all, although she still has contact with him.