The poor 17 month old -died of broken back

[skydancer1]

I just find these kind of stories of extreme abuse so very upsetting and wish we had better safeguards in place to stop such hideous harm happening or at least continuing (when it's pretty obvious!) to helpless children. Why on earth did the doctor not examine a child because he was already on an at risk register and was 'cranky and miserable' at an appointment and hence he/she failed to notice broken back and ribs? It beggars belief. I'm not a punitive 'hang them flog them' type (in fact I'm strongly against corporal punishment) but in this instance I think the mother should be forcibly sterilised to prevent her ever hurting or 'allowing' such hurt to any other child.

Well I've not been fantasising about revenge on the perpetrators in this case (although I do still get mighty angry if I stop and think about what they did for a second) but I am still having a LOT of trouble getting what happened to little Peter out of my mind. I have never been so haunted by a child abuse case. In RL no-one I know seems so affected or else they seem to want to close their ears and eyes. I can understand why, in a way, as now I cant escape the pain of all this. I think I'm haunted partly because this case is still unresolved as there haven't been any satisfactory answers or people brought to account for missing P's suffering while he was alive. Then I find it repulsive that none of those adults directly responsible for his death will be prosecuted for murder when it is plain as day they were all murderers. FFS. And then I think of all the other children whose abuse is probably still being missed by inadequate social services or the wider community/extended families. And more broadly, I think that some degree of brutality/harshness towards children just seems ingrained in British culture (which I think makes the extremes harder to spot, probably).

I'll never forget a mother and small child walking past me in a shopping centre a couple of years ago and the woman was clearly and quite publicly verbally abusing the little girl plus pulling her along very roughly and hatefully. The girl was both frightened and crying. The woman was seething and spitting venom. I wanted to speak to that woman and give her a piece of my mind about how she was treating her daughter (if it was her daughter) - if only to show the little girl that others could see what was happening to her and that it was wrong, and maybe to shock the woman a little out of her raging at the girl. To my shame I didn't. I had recently given birth, had my own tiny baby in a sling and what stopped me was fear that this woman would swing for me and I wouldn't be able to defend myself and my child.

skydancer, I know how you feel. I wanted to read about the story, natural curiosity, but now I sometimes wish I could do what others have done this past week - put it to the back of my mind (people in RL I know - they don't mention this story, and now I know why). It's so upsetting and I was in tears aswell the same day the story broke out.

Sadly I can't see this being the last case of child abuse. It just keeps happening and happening.

I'm quite sure the perpetrators will get their just deserves in prison, so justice will be done one way or another.

Hi

MNHQ have asked that you only post about P on this thread

If you don't believe me see post on this thread
By GeraldineMumsnet on Mon 17-Nov-08 12:43:22 (from MNHQ)

\Or see the message at the top of the thread above the OP

Ok BennyAndJoon. It seems a bit weird to have to streamline like that -why exactly? Ok it is a distressing subject but is this putting it all in one thread just to make it easier to miss? Anyway I'll transfer my last post over there...