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? 💙

Min term is 2/3 of the sentence so 16.6 years and the rest of sentence to be completed on license. He is 32 now so he may only be 48 when he is released. This feels too short to me

Social services should have some sort of other power to go to incase they have any concerns.
The police are too busy with fining motorists and other petty crimes. Serious crimes like this they ignore but if tax is out on a car they chase you down.

At the same time I dont think the social worker did enough. If I had any inkling of a baby being abused I would scream until I was heard. Go to the newspapers , do something. It's just not good enough.

Also unfortunately it seems people are more afraid to take a risk on abuse than to be classed d as homophobic

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I hear you on the thinking that foster parents shouldn't be involved to let the child settle in - but I don't think that is really child-centred thinking. From court it sounds like they let the baby build up to seeing the two men - then they adoptive perpetrators (I can't call them parents, they never were) cut off contact. The foster mum knew something was wrong and complained to the SW. That should never have been allowed to happen - she was a safe person that the baby had bonded with. And if she'd been allowed access and to be part of his life she might even have been able to save it.

From the BBC:
Cooper, who has fostered 43 children over 27 years, said there was a gradual familiarisation with the adoptive parents before finally giving Preston up for adoption and the child moving into the defendants' home on 3 April 2023.
But, afterwards, planned visits by her to see the child had been made difficult by the defendants, she claimed.
Cooper told the jury she had difficulty getting access to see Preston and made a complaint to a social worker.
She said: "I was worried. I felt like something is wrong. I felt like they were hiding him from me.
"It's just my, call it gut feeling. I felt like something was wrong."

Poor woman and poor poor Preston. The system needs to change.

Its not uncommon

In my adoption circles lots of us has issues with previous foster carers. Foster carers can be amazing but are also just regular people with faults. Its hard to be a new parent and sometimes foster carers can be well meaning but interfering, struggle to handover control to the new parents, or sometimes just try to do things their way and undermine new parents. Or the foster carers might have been declined in adopting the child so not be supportive. Or in our case the child was really unsettled by foster carer visits to begin with so they were halted

In our group its only a small handful that has the ideal foster care relationship and even less so over the first few months

Go to the paper for what? Scream to who?

The court requires evidence before removal.

It’s all well and good saying “I would have done this” but as a professional who has to work within the framework of law, what would it have achieved? He would not be removed without evidence. Not a red flag, not a gut feeling, evidence.

You cannot just go and take a child without a court order.

Why is it just the social worker who should have done more? The medical professionals did not mark any injuries as none accidental. That would have been one of main things that could have triggered removal. The police didn’t use their powers of removal, so they didn’t see the flags either.

I get the strength of feeling, I really do. I’m angry too.

But people need to be realistic here, it’s very easy to look back with hindsight and see what should have been done.

The SCR will show exactly what failings are highlighted, but please think about directing your anger somewhere other than the social worker here. Write to your MP, look at the manifestos of whoever you’re voting for. We need probably resourced and funded services - social care, health, and the police. All of those systems are crumbling, it’s not sustainable and it certainly isn’t safe.

I think if a social worker or hospital staff member kicked up enough of a fuss they would be listened to. Keep on the back of their seniors , drill it into them that something isn't right. They take kids from other people for less ffs
It's an absolute joke.

I have a gay son who lives with his partner. Both kind people who would be incapable of this kind of cruelty and depravity. Musn't tar everyone.

There needs to be an inquiry at the highest level. Not "lessons will be learned.'

I can imagine it's can be really tricky. But that focuses on whether or not the new parents and foster parents get on. Not the child's wellbeing and safety. If they're unsettled by visits that is another thing (and I'm sure the perpetrators would have claimed that) - although I wonder if they could be picking up on tensions. Not commenting on your situation as everyone is different.

Adoption as a whole needs to be way more child focused. These two were obvious weirdos just to see them in conversation, even if the full evil wasn't clear. I wouldn't have wanted to talk to them on a train - especially that fuck3r who was the main instigator, he's just creepy - they should never have been handed a baby. The foster mum knew and felt it.

I’m not sure you’re listening to those who have experience in this field. A child cannot be removed from parents/ foster parents/ adoptive placement for gut feelings/ professionals ‘screaming’/ newspaper stories. The police have powers to remove a child for a v short period of time if there are concerns about immediate safety, but ultimately there has to be evidence (from both sides) presented to the court and for the court to agree that the child needs to be removed. Social workers to a very difficult job, and they do not ‘take’ children away.

No, they wouldn’t. Which newspaper is going to risk court action for running a story without evidence? Who is going to agree to go into someone’s house with no evidence?

Do you see the theme here?

Would you WANT social workers to be able to go into family homes and removed children based on a gut feeling?

Solicitors have to defend them to make sure they have a fair, watertight trial. A situation where people accused of crimes don’t have a proper criminal defence would make our entire criminal justice system a shitshow. It hinges on everybody having a proper defence. We can all rest easier knowing that they had a fair trial and that they weren’t found guilty just because they didn’t have anyone speaking up for them. Criminal defence lawyers play a hugely important role in all of this.

Yes, I understand for the reasons you say which makes absolute sense, I guess I just meant how do they feel really when they stand there in the case of Jamie Varley, defending him saying something along the lines of “he doesn’t deserve a whole life order as the intent wasn’t to kill and he is of previous good character.” It must be difficult when there is overwhelming evidence of their guilt.

Maybe JV and JMFs mums thought the same?

The very least we can do is pressure the government into a national inquiry - I know 2 local MPs are pushing this but wanted to share here too: www.change.org/p/preston-davey-deserved-better-demand-a-national-inquiry?source_location=topics_page&pt=AVBldGl0aW9uAFJ4SR0AAAAAaja8oQfSztk0ZjdlZDFhMg%3D%3D

They need to get a grip on this. Look at all the high profile cases the last few weeks: Henry Nowak, the Bulgarians in Dundee, Sara Sharif, baby Preston. The police, social workers and authorities have a blind or even soft spot for minorities and protected groups. How could a baby taken so many times to A & E not be followed up?

Thanks for posting this link, have just signed.

I heard in the radio that the Spiral fracture of Preston’s elbow should have raised more concern as it can be taken as a sign of CSA. This article does seem to suggest that they are rare.

As someone who has been in the prison service, I like to think that prisoners can be rehabilitated and a whole term sentence is severe. Sometimes these sentences are handed down as a deterrant but it seems not to work. We are still stuck with serial rapists, child murderers, gang rapists and other assassins. The severity of the penalties seems not to work.

I agree. "Gut feelings" from someone as experienced as that aren't generally as woo as they sound: while the phrase might sound like they aren't likely to have anything tangible behind them, they are often based on a set of actually pretty concrete but perhaps relatively small signs individually that something in the environment or what's happening is very "off". A pattern of something wrong.

Bearing in mind how many times Sandra had done this and gone through the adoption process with other children, her "gut feeling" here was both valuable and turned out to be spot on. I don't think the number of meetings missed was acceptable, for example. Then JV and JMF put in a complaint about her? Did she get to put her side at all? Of course nobody would expect SW to swoop in and remove Preston the basis of just her concerns, but I'd have thought a closer look and not just dismissing someone who had that many years of experience of going through the handover process was absolutely warranted?

For all of you defending them, unsurprisingly the social workers from Prestons case missed opportunities to save 3 other kids too. www.dailymail.com/news/article-15908039/Social-workers-council-responsible-murdered-adopted-baby-Preston-Davey-missed-chances-save-THREE-children-harm.html?ito=social-facebook-video&fbclid=IwdGRjcASkLr5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4-fRJq_lrgXYUPEwALN83O7-dzxSlMGGEEZSlpyo4faRN7qRIIj5IHBLdeGQ_aem_zAWIVWc43hoDF2fNllmC1Q

You lose credibility when you use the Daily Mail as your source.

There is nothing in that article that says the “social workers from Preston’s case” had anything to do with the other cases mentioned.

It’s the same local authority, you have no idea if it’s the same social worker or not. All this highlights is a systemic failure. I’ve already said the system is on its arse and needs to be reviewed. I’ve already said that people need to write to their MP and look at who they’re voting for. I’ve already said under-resourced services and unsafe caseloads mean children are at further risk.

You seem determined to blame an individual social worker here, why is that?

I don’t think anyone is defending the SW, posters are pointing out that it’s far more complex. Why for instance didn’t the Police follow up when a Nurse at the Hospital said that bruising was inconsistent with the story that one of the evil duckers (I refuse to call them parents) had given?

Why wasn’t the spiral fracture of the arm ringing alarm bells when they can be caused by CSA?

And I agree, the population have consistently over the last few years voted in a party that deliberately under funds services like Hospitals, HVs, Police and SW.

This case is definitely not the fault of one SW.