How can parents do this?

Unfortunately only in very limited circumstances.

Calistemon

Germanshepherdsmum

They are obliged to take the case under the cab rank principle Calistemon.

Yes, I realise but is it possible to refuse and take the next cab?

I understand your feelings Callistemon. My experience of working in the Courts was that solicitors/barristers were able to represent both perpetrators and their victims in different cases, equally well. I’m sure everyone involved in this case will be haunted by the suffering of this defenceless little boy. Acting for either of his abusers will have been a dreadful experience.
I remain of the view, even they deserved a fair trial. Tough though I found it to write that

Yes, I know.
Remembering those who didn't have a fair trial because some of the evidence wasn't available to the defence years ago.

Kc55

I saw this right at the beginning of the court case and cried when I read that he's said his Gran loved him and he wanted to go there. Perhaps the police actually need an army of us Grans to carry out these so called 'welfare visits'. Not many of us would have missed those bruises nor have been fooled by a smooth talking Dad. I understand that the stepmother has already encountered problems in prison. Long may they continue. I feel for his family who tried to get some idiot to pay attention.

This is true, but some are estranged

I think SS give up quite easily if they are challenged or someone convinces them everything is fine. Grandparents should have more rights.

I've posted before that my neighbour had the police visit her to warn her about "harrssing" her son and his partner when she tried to get someone to help her grandchildren.
She was told she would be arrested.

I actually hope she is despised, and has a miserable time in jail. If the other prisoners hurt her, I really could not care less.
I hope she is never released. The Father will be out in 21 years and could still Father children.

It makes me sick that us taxpayers will be feeding and ‘housing’ her.
I hope she rots in hell.
In all of my years, nothing has affected me as badly as this story. I keep breaking down when I think of that harrowing evidence. I feel traumatised by the evidence, but that’s nothing compared to what those jurors had to witness and, obviously, what that poor child went through. My DP (bless him - he’s equally sickened) doesn’t know what to do with an unstable, emotional female, so just passes me a tissue and stays out out the way
I wish there was something we could do, some way to let Arthur know he has captured our hearts

Do we know what the defence could possibly have come up with? I’ve been unable to read details as too distressing.

I feel the same Flaxseed and my sister rang me in tears this morning.
Unfortunately we can't let Arthur know. He loved Birmingham City FC (my husband's team). They are having applause 6 minutes (for Arthur's age) into their match tomorrow as are Aston Villa. Arthur will never know but it's something I suppose.

In the video that is circulating, taken the morning of the day he was attacked fatally, I read that Arthur is struggling to put his duvet away, despite being in pain that made him wince, from having been made to stand, as a discipline, for several hours, each day over the four previous days, God only knows what other beatings and neglect he suffered besides that left him so weak and broken

I cannot comprehend how, even in death, this beautiful, doomed child is still denied the love, care and respect he longed for, his little battered body still lying in the mortuary, 18 months on from his terrible death, because the two sides of his family cannot agree where he should be buried. This really is the final abuse and neglect, even now by those who claim to love him

She got 29 years, which they're calling life, for murder.
He got 27 years for manslaughter.
I hope they get sine awful treatment inside!!!

Nananet01,
Oh I didn't read about the burial bit. Poor soul!
The powers that be should decree where he be buried, somewhere in the middle of all the arguments. Or the choice of the grandparents he was living with before the one he called 'daddy' took Arthur away from them!!!
That poor, poor little boy. He looked so happy in the pics!
He was even made to sleep on the floor, not even the sofa!!
I wonder what her children thought about the little boy 'mummy' was so nasty and cruel to?

I was thinking about that woman’s other children. They must be so disturbed by this. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are in care now.

More tears this morning reading that he still lies in a mortuary.

Not only has that evil women stolen this little boys life, but her own children will now have to grow up with the fact that their mother committed this terrible crime.

I just happened to peruse the Mail online to get the news this morning and a picture popped up of this paid lounging on the sofa eating ice creams in the summer while Arthur starved elsewhere.

this pair not paid

As they are early 30s they’ll only be 60 and 50 when they are release if not before. What excuses did they have about what they’ve done?

I imagine even after they're released rom jail they y won't have much of a life. They'll have to be given new identities and will be constantly in fear that someone will discover who they really are.

The 'father' will probably get parole halfway through his sentence if he behaves himself in term. If he lives that long. If and when they are released I sincerely hope they are identified and that they suffer.

I don't think I am a vindictive person. I don't wish death or ill health on anyone but when I read about children like Arthur I find myself hoping that these 2 endure total misery every day that they spend in prison. They should have locked them both up for life and thrown away the keys.

The local MP is trying to get the sentences increased.

A minor point, but I find it most irksome, the fact that this woman was described as a "step parent", as many others who are so recently shacked up with the parent are, a real misnomer if ever there was one. I can never really understand why such a title is conferred, particularly in cases where the treatment of the child/ren of their other is so appalling. A boyfriend/girlfriend, partner/live in partner surely? The step parent title implies far more gravitas than this woman deserves or indeed anyone like her and should surely be attributed to the many step parents who have provided some positive continuity in their step children's lives.

The cruelty appalled me, yes, I cry when I think of that poor little mite living with those abhorrent beings. They are sub human and should be treated as such.

Absolutely right terribull. I’m a proper, official step parent myself.

Kate that’s good news. I hope the Attorney General agrees to appeal against the sentencing. It’s horrifying that the ‘father’ could be out in under ten years as time spent on remand will be credited against the sentences too.

Kate1949

I just happened to peruse the Mail online to get the news this morning and a picture popped up of this paid lounging on the sofa eating ice creams in the summer while Arthur starved elsewhere.

That is just pure evil.