Criminal inquiry launched after six-year-old boy ‘kills newborn baby’ in France

[SerendipityJane]

Terrible story, raises some upsetting questions.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/crime/france-baby-killed-boy-hospital-lille-b2790118.html

Oh my god that is absolutely sickening. That poor baby and those poor parents. Heartbreaking.

So many questions need answering, especially why a disruptive child was allowed to run around freely in a hospital and no member of staff giving a shit!!

There’s obviously a lot not being reported: on the face of it, a very young child picking up a baby and dropping it isn’t a criminal matter - so the investigation is perhaps (presumably?) focusing on his parents who were negligent / weren’t providing any kind of supervision, and on hospital staff for not adequately monitoring a room where an unwell baby was and not having appropriate security in wards. Very sad all around.

This is devasting for the family of the little baby. I cannot understand how a 6 year old was allowed to be freely roaming around a neonatal unit though. I'm sure somebody should be held accountable but from my pov it is not the 6 year old child. RIP little one.

I agree. I think there are some questions to be asked of both the boy’s parents and the hospital in question as to how this could happen in the first place. It doesn’t sound as though the 6 year old intentionally caused harm, but he should never have been allowed anywhere near the area.

Devastating for the baby’s parents and wider family.

This is heartbreaking. Poor baby and her family, so utterly sad.
It sounds like the 6yr old was completely let down by his parents and the staff should have prevented his running around. He was bored and neglected it sounds, curious and sounds like he saw the tiny baby as a toy.
Surely this was preventable?
What an awful situation for all involved.

Agree with all of this. It’s unbelievably sad, I can’t imagine the heartbreak of the poor parents of the baby, why would they ever doubt the safety of their newborn in a neonatal unit?
The 6 year old, imo, can’t be held to blame, perhaps he should’ve been more gentle but clearly, given how the parents allowed him to run amok even when spoken to by other parents and hospital staff, they’re not much in the way of active parenting! They should be held accountable for this.
With all that being said, the hospital staff should’ve cracked down on this much earlier imo.

It says in the article he was there from 7am daily - I’m wondering if his father dropped him off there expecting the mother to look after him? Crazy.

The blame should sit 100% with the parents of the boy. Hospital staff are busy and all the reports say they spoke to the parents about it and managed as best they could. Really the ward manager should have come down immediately saying its not appropriate and made him leave but its down to the parents of the child, who should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves tbh.

This kind of language is often employed when something like this happens. Why do you assume staff didn't give a shit? How do you think those nurses and doctors would feel if they read that comment? Do you not think that they were all busy 'giving a shit' about the sick children they were caring for? The article even says that staff raised this with the mother of the 6 year old. Nurses aren't able to supervise other people's children. This is a tragedy and needs an enquiry but blaming staff in the hospital with no evidence and accusing them of not giving a shit is vile.

I think it has to be on the staff to some extent tbh - or at least, on hospital procedures for accessing units and security and whether any were in place or being followed: if a child visitor has the opportunity to enter a neonatal unit and can have enough unsupervised time to lift a baby from its bassinet, handle it, and drop it, then that means any adult visitor could have had the same opportunity to wander in - including somebody who wanted to harm babies, or a kidnapper. That’s an enormous deviation away from the basic security procedures a hospital should have around vulnerable babies.

What a heart breaking story.
Aside from thinking about how awful it is, my 1st thought was how did the 6 year old gain access to the NNU? In my local hospital (in the UK), you have to buzz and wait to be let in the NNU....is that not a thing in France?

I suspect this too.

I don't actually blame the boy's mother if she had just given birth herself, (possibly with a c-section, possibly awake for a huge number of consecutive hours in labour) and was an in-patient in the maternity ward at the time - ffs, what does it take for a woman to be considered reasonably 'off duty'? How could she have physically kept an active 6yr old by her side all day?

The person who dropped the boy off effectively left him unsupervised and as such is the person liable for this tragedy (though I do also have the same questions as other posters about lack of restricted access to the neonatal unit).

Heartbreaking. So many unanswered questions, which I am sure will be addressed in the fullness of time. RIP baby Zayneb, your poor parents.

I agree that the 6 year old is not to blame and I don't think the mother is to blame either if she is in hospital and bed bound herself. A 6 year old should not be running up and down a hospital or able to access sick babies that have been left alone.

The staff should have been responsible for telling the mother that she needed to organise alternative care for the boy or that he would be temporarily placed into foster care.

I disagree. The staff are responsible for what goes on inside the hospital and they should have called SS and had the child put into temporary foster care if neither of the parents were capable/willing to look after him. The father was irresponsible for leaving the child with the mother but wasn't responsible for the death. The child left to do as he pleased, despite his behaviour and allowed access to a sick baby. The staff were completely negligent and responsible for the death IMO.

It’s attitudes like yours which allows disasters like this to happen, because if one of them had actually cared they would have made sure this situation was dealt correctly.

There is zero excuse for letting this child run around the hospital unsupervised. Someone in this situation should be held accountable.

And I’m absolutely fed up hearing of professional not doing their jobs properly and then others making excuses for them.

His father shouldn’t have dropped him off there.

But if his mother wasn’t able to supervise him, he should’ve been with hospital security until police/ social services turned up. He should never have been allowed to be alone and hospital shouldn’t have allowed it. Enormous safeguarding failure for both patient and the 6 year old.

However I don’t believe the 6 year old is totally blameless….
My 5 year old would never pick up a baby without asking. She’d know they were real and poorly. And that’s without ever having visiting hospital. I can’t imagine any of her friends doing this in the guise of play. This is clearly a neglected / troubled child which isn’t his fault, but he did murder a baby. I think he really needs to be in a secure unit or care home with lots of therapy, and hopefully it’ll be the only horrific crime he commits.

Very sad situation.

I agree except for saying the child murdered the baby. There is nothing to suggest he wanted to harm the poor baby.
Agree this should never have happened and I don’t believe it would in the UK.

Agree, this is very strange behaviour for a 6 year old. Mine understands babies are real, delicate humans and I'm pretty sure all her friends do too. Tragic for everyone whatever the reason.

I think he would’ve known they were poorly, needed very special care/ help, had to be gentle and even parents couldn’t hold them in some cases. I obviously can’t know to what extent, but I do believe he knew he was harming the baby and breaking the rules.

These are my immediate thoughts. Sorry if people don’t like them. The kid is a fucking little shit. He shouldn’t have been at the hospital. Looks like no one in the family wanted to look after him. The whole thing has made me feel sick for the parents of the baby.

I agree to a certain extent. But I’d be surprised if the parenting up to this point had been top notch tbh.

My 6 year old is far from perfect. But like fuck would she run up and down hospital corridors and into people’s rooms all day.

I also think the staff should have insisted the boy be taken home. And if the parents refused, called social services because if we’re saying the mother physically couldn’t look after him, then he has basically been abandoned by his father to run riot.

My 6 yr old Grandson would know not to run around a hospital or pick up and drop a baby, but then he’s not a feral little git. Some kids are vile, with equally vile parents.

What an earth have I just read? Why didn’t the hospital staff ask the parents to remove their child. Especially if other parents were complaining.

He’s literally six years old. Come on.