Baby Preston Davey - Content warning concerns CSA (added by MNHQ)

[Sadmamma35]

I’ve just read about baby Preston Davey and I cannot stop thinking about him. I have a 13-month-old of my own, which is probably why this has hit me so hard — I can really relate and my baby is my everything.
I’m crying as I write this. Why does it hurt so much for a baby I’ve never even met? Has anyone else felt this way?
How do you cope with the negative thoughts that follow when you read something like this? 💙

I was about to say they do but I think you’re right. I think Howard Hughes might have, actually. In a lot of cases they haven’t had a whole life sentence but a sentence of forty years or so combined with their age means they won’t actually be released.

I think he got a 50 year minimum sentence

Yes, you are right. Thank you.

If he does receive a life sentence with a minimum tariff, then he still may not ever be realised. He will have to apply for parole, so hopefully either way he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

As another poster said, I do not think child sex offenders can ever be rehabilitated. They will always be a risk to children, and so should never be released back into society.

Teacher and private school educated finance professional. Of course they weren't gonna be profiled as potential abusers. People like this should be offered lethal injection their existences are pointless, and very expensive for the taxpayer. But that would give them a quick painless exit they don't deserve.

Are the foster carers still working? I think about them as well in all this

I thought paedophiles were talked about as being incredibly hard if not impossible to rehabilitate.

Thanks @ItsPickleRick. I hadn’t seen it mentioned.

I think the Jury have done an amazing job on what must have been a very traumatic and harrowing case. In fact, everyone who has worked in the case is to be commended.

I don’t know. I read somewhere, possibly on this thread that they had wanted to adopt Preston but were refused.

God knows what they are going through.

I’m sure I read somewhere that Preston was their last baby and they gave JV and JMF some of their baby things because of that. THe MEN live update page is too big to scroll back through and check though.

I read the grandmother wanted to adopt too. What were social services playing at? Do they have no oversight?

I can see that if there were concerns relating to her health she may not have been deemed suitable. This is the issue: we know now her have been better almost anywhere and with anyone else but at the time that wasn’t known. We can all predict the future when it is in the past.

They have been convicted now but you cannot help but cry when you see the video of this poor little innocent sweetie bouncing up and down to "the wheels on the bus go "
What evil people are in this world

Grandmother has custody of the older child, she wanted to take Preston but due to her ill health (breast cancer) she wasn’t able to.

But he’d still be alive now…..

Children’s Services getting it SO wrong again.

I find it hard to believe the grandmother wouldn’t have had support from other family members despite her diagnosis.

That child was beautiful.

Those dirty, horrible bastards.

He could have been placed with anybody and would probably have been alive now.

I’m looking forward to the independent review of the actions (inactions) of the council.

The grandma made the choice not to take him because of her health. Social services will always try to place with family members first if at all possible.

There will now be the obligatory “blame the social workers” comments. There are only two people to blame for Preston’s murder.

I’ve mentioned this before - the majority of my cohort wanted to be child protection social workers when we started our degree. By the end of it, none did. We still had the passion, but we saw how social workers were vilified when things went wrong. Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members posting pictures of social workers and wishing them dead. Many students who would have been incredible children’s social workers chose another route because ultimately, no matter what management said, when something goes wrong the blame lies with them.

Nobody hears about the children that are saved. Social services, like most public services, are broken. Years of lack of funding, high caseloads, burnout, wanting to remove a child but being blocked by managers, working hours of unpaid overtime just to get everything done. An average of 20 children on your caseload, all high risk. How do you seem them all more than once a week?

Yes, the social worker here made mistakes. Ones she will probably never forgive herself for. This is every social workers worst nightmare, but even with the best social care system in the world, children will die, because bastards like Varley exist.

I live a couple of doors away from where this happened. I saw but never met the monsters. They didn't live there long and they kept their house immaculate from the outside. The fact this was happening so close while we were having dinner, laughing and joking totally sickens me. That poor gorgeous baby. May they rot in hell for what they've done

Social workers (or their managers) make out of touch recommendations all the time.
Yes they might be under resourced, but the days of proper social work and stringent checks are long gone. They just rely on hair strand testing now.

And a couple of blokes with decent jobs must be good eggs…..

What’s your experience with social workers? That’s a sweeping statement to make.

They passed the same checks that every other adopters passed I assume. Someone isn’t an abuser until they are. Background checks are clear, until they’re not.

I’m not going to go back and forth with you, clearly mistakes were made and I’ll also be reading the SCR, but let’s not lose sight of who the actual perpetrators are here.

My experience with SW’s?

I see them in court every day.

So for ICO’s etc? At the point where it has been deemed too high risk for a child to stay with a parent and they are in court recommending removal, yet you’re making a generalised statement implying that they don’t do enough to keep children safe?

What happened to poor baby Preston was inexcusable and unbelievable that anyone could be so cruel and disgusting. Those vile men alone were responsible for his death. I hope they rot.

It is true that there is always “lessons to be learnt” and hindsight for the professionals involved but the reality is that it’s very very difficult to prove a child is at such risk of harm that you can remove them, especially from adopters who would have already had all the necessary safeguarding checks and positive references and would also have their own social worker supporting and supervising.

I am by profession a children’s social worker. I worked 9 years in child protection and burnt out. Never ever again. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done and while I love children I was so so unhappy. It wasn’t the social workers fault but I guarantee they would be blaming themselves and in despair, wishing they could turn back the clock but in reality, without knowing what a sadistic sick twisted maniac that man was, and without knowing what we know know, probably not much would have been done differently. Maybe a few more unannounced visits perhaps. It’s so so sad.

You did really well to last nine years x