Man guilty of toddler's death in 'worse than Climbie' child abuse case

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities and also in Local Government

A man was convicted today of involvement in the death of a toddler after a series of failings described as "worse than Climbie".

The 17-month-old died after months of being used "as a punchbag" and then having his back and ribs broken.

The toddler's 32-year-old "dad" - his mother's boyfriend - was found guilty today of causing or allowing the death in August last year.

The child's 27-year-old mother pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier and will be sentenced on December 15. She was cleared of murder earlier on the directions of the judge.

The 32-year-old was cleared of murder by the jury.

The jury was told to convict him of the lesser charge if it could not agree on who caused the injuries in the house where three adults were living.

The family, from Haringey, north London, cannot be named for legal reasons.

House guest Jason Owen, 36, from Bromley, south east London, was also found guilty of causing or allowing the death today.

The abuse was said to have taken place over eight months, during which time the boy was on the child protection register of Haringey social services.

He was seen 60 times by health or social workers during that period, being seen about twice a week.

By the end, he was unrecognisable, his curly, golden locks shaved off, his cheeks hollow and his eyes dead to the world.

He had more than 50 injuries or bruises and an attempt had been made to cover up the crime.

He should have been protected by social workers, police and health professionals, the Old Bailey heard.

But his mother had been able to manipulate them with lies and even got away with smearing him with chocolate to hide bruises.

In the 48 hours before the boy was found dead in his blood-spattered cot, a doctor failed to spot his broken spine.

And police told the mother she would not be prosecuted after being arrested twice for suspected child cruelty.

The tragedy has echoes of the Victoria Climbie murder in 2000, when eight-year-old Victoria died after care workers and police failed to save her.

In an ironic twist, both children's homes were a stone's throw from each other, and they were under the care of the same local services.

Mor Dioum, director of the Victoria Climbie Foundation, set up to improve child protection, said: "This case is worse than Climbie. The signs were there but were not followed."

There were "systematic and operational failures that led to the tragic and sad death of such a beautiful child".

He called for a public inquiry into the failings.

Gillie Christou, in charge of social workers looking after children on the register in Haringey, told the court she had agreed to keep the baby with his mother.

She said: "I made the decision at the time based on the material in front of me and based on the background to the case."

A detective in the case said the boy had more than 50 injuries, 15 of them to the mouth.

He described the boyfriend as "sadistic - fascinated with pain". He had Nazi memorabilia in the house.

The mother was "a slob, completely divorced from reality. She was living in a dream world and put her lover before her child. She closed her eyes to what was going on".

After the case, police said they had complied with a multi-agency long-term care plan for the family.

But procedures have now been toughened up to give police more confidence in challenging decisions.

Detective Superintendent Caroline Bates said police errors were made which caused a delay at the start of the abuse inquiry, but these had not been significant to the outcome.

She said: "With hindsight, having the benefit of a major investigation, we know quite clearly that the mother was lying and trying to subvert agencies involved with the family."

The mother had appeared to be co-operating with agencies but "she constantly conspired to prevent us knowing what was going on".

In June "police officers felt very strongly that he should not be returned" to his mother.

A police inspector asked twice if the threshold had been reached to start care proceedings.

"This was a huge tragedy which should have been avoided. If we had only known the truth about the adults in the house," said Ms Bates.

Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provides paediatric services to children from Haringey, said Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, who was involved in the failed clinic check, is no longer working there.

Owen and the 32-year-old man were remanded in custody to be sentenced on December 15.

After the verdicts, Judge Stephen Kramer excused members of the jury from serving for 10 years.

He told them: "You have heard evidence of a harrowing nature and you have seen things which in the course of your everyday life you would not be expected to see."

Commenting on the case, local MP Lynne Featherstone said the child, who she referred to as Baby P, had fallen through "safety net after safety net".

"The Children's Act was borne out of tragedy in Haringey after the death of Victoria Climbie.

"Yet eight years after her death the law created to stop this happening again has failed to prevent a similar tragedy in the same borough.

"Baby P should have been at the centre of all decision making.

"We must therefore have a fully independent investigation by the Children's Commissioner into what went so terribly wrong."

After the verdict, Ms Bates added: "There is no doubt that this child's death was a tragedy and he suffered terribly at the hands of his carers during the last months of his short life."

She said the child's mother had "consistently lied" to evade the attentions of social service and healthcare professionals and presented "false but plausible explanations" of what was happening to him.

The two men had "failed to accept responsibility" for the cruelty inflicted on the baby, she added.

"We cannot guarantee that a child will not be the victim of abuse by his carers but we continue to investigate allegations of child abuse.

"I urge anyone who is concerned about the welfare or safety of a child to contact police immediately."

Judith Reed of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a sickening crime against a vulnerable child perpetrated by the very people who should have protected him."

In a statement after the verdicts, Sharon Shoesmith, chair of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, said: "This was a young life cut tragically short and our thoughts are with his father and family.

"We worked hard to support the family - social workers, health visitors, doctors and nurses all saw him and his mother regularly.

"We made arrangements to protect him, monitoring his progress, and organised for the mother to go on a parenting course. We arranged for a family friend to help with his care, a childminder to look after him four days a week and report any suspicious injuries.

"The mother seemed to be co-operating with us: taking the child to doctors when he was ill, seeking help.

"In line with Government guidelines for such circumstances, we immediately set up an independent review into what happened and have acted on every recommendation. The executive summary has been published today."

Dr Jane Collins, chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provided paediatric services to the child, said: "As part of this review, I commissioned independent experts to look at the decisions and actions of medical staff in this case.

"It is clear that more should have been done when the child was seen by a paediatrician two days before the child died.

"The review process is important in understanding what happened and how procedures can be strengthened for the future. Where we have needed to act, we have done so."

The independent review found the abuse should have been uncovered by a community paediatrician who saw the child on August 1, 2007.

It said: "Expert medical opinion commissioned during the course of this serious case review concluded that a diagnosis of abuse should have been made at that point."

The report said that, just over a week before he died, legal advice was that, on the information provided, the threshold for initiating care proceedings had not been met.

Councillor Robert Gorrie, Lib Dem leader of the opposition at Haringey Council, called on the Children's Commissioner to carry out an independent review.

He said: "The tragic death of Victoria Climbie, and the national reforms that resulted, should have stopped this happening again. Yet the facts revealed during the trial point to similar failings with the same tragic consequences.

"With so many public organisations involved, why did one of them not act decisively to save this child?"

He said better communications between agencies may have prevented the child's death, adding: "Haringey Council's role as the leading body responsible for the welfare of the toddler was crucial, yet under their leadership there seem, from the information available, to have been significant failings in sharing vital information.

"Closed-door reviews by the council are completely inadequate. The credibility of Haringey's child protection system has been called into question again.

"The public need independent reassurance and it is for this reason we need the Children's Commissioner to carry out a full and independent review of the case."