Little Arthur

I cannot watch the video MaybeMaw, I'm traumatised enough having read the story and seen the photos of thus dear little boy, I can't do that

Poor little Arthur. Can't begin to imagine the physical and mental suffering he endured at the hands of this evil pair.
Those involved in these cases should err on the side of caution where abuse has been reported.
A Gran I used to know reported her daughter's boyfriend to social services for abusing her 10 month old GS. Nothing was done so she took it upon herself to remove the child while he was out. Her D didn't object. They found the baby was covered in cigarette burns. Not the legal way to do it but he may have ended up as yet another sad statistic.

My mother was traumatised after hearing about little Sarah Phillips who died in 1983 aged 16 months old in Llanishan, Wales. She was brutally beaten by her parents, admitted to hospital unconscious three times and kept being returned to her parents who killed her the fourth time. I won't give you the details, they are too distressing. Sarah's murderers will be free now of course. Just more evidence these horrors have always happened despite supposedly having social care and child protection services. The list of babies and children who have died since then is a very long one. It's about time those lessons were learned and implemented but it seems they never are.

I haven’t read a word of it, I looked at his face and know he was tortured to death and it breaks my heart, the evil, the manipulation, I wish the parent could have the death penalty. There is no place for them and their like, no redemption nothing, I can’t stop thinking of him and that little baby recently killed. What has happened to the world. In prison they will need to be very worried. I can’t understand how the police cope, they are family people, it must be traumatic for them.

My recent safeguarding training stated that we must:

Think the unthinkable.
Display professional curiosity.
Show respectful uncertainty.

And stressed that:

Safeguarding children is everyone's responsibility.

Fine words.
But if the authorities don't act on serious concerns, which often have been raised by the wider family, there needs to be some independent body that people can go to.
A Children's Ombudsman maybe?

She has been jailed for a minimum of 29 years - the judge told her that she will be in prison for that length of time before she is even considered for parole. The boy's "father" (find it hard to describe him that way) was jailed for 21 years

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_ombudsman

Well I've answered my own question...

Lessons clearly have NOT been learned

I am sick to death of hearing that phrase.

I hope that the authorities are given more funding, more powers to investigate and remove babies and children from abusive, torturing, murderous parents. They should listen to all the warnings.
The parents should forfeit all rights to their children and should receive tougher sentences.

How can a so-called civilised society turn a blind eye to the suffering of these helpless children?

V3ra

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_ombudsman

Well I've answered my own question...

Toothless probably.
Just another layer of bureaucracy.

It's easy to criticise social services (although sometimes it's justified) but consider this.

In England, children's services have been crippled by austerity cuts (long before this current government came into power). Early intervention is virtually impossible because family support services have been gutted. High tier councils spend up to 70% of their budget on children's and adult social care, leaving little for other core services. A large amount of that spending is on children's home placements, mostly provided by the private sector which, an investigation about a year ago revealed, if owned by equity-owned providers, could collectively make hundreds of millions of pounds a year in profits. A placement can cost up to £250,000 per year, although only about 1 in 10 children are placed.

Then there are the guidelines that social workers have to work by. They have to spot signs of abuse and neglect, but at the same time the emphasis is on keeping children within their family environment - with the help of the family support systems that are struggling to cope. Is it an wonder that some children are taken into care unnecessarily, whilst others are left with abusive parents. They simply cannot cope, there are not enough of them for the caseloads and the support systems they need are not there. They will get it wrong, and they do.

So what are the "lessons" that we will inevitably be told need to be learned - to prevent this from "ever happening again" - what do we do about the "missed opportunities"? What has been "learned" since little Victoria Climbié was murdered?

It's not enough to sob and weep for Little Arthur, and I have cried, like others because I watched the video - my own son is called Arthur, and, to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, also called Arthur, we called him "Little Arthur".

Has anyone thought about her children? She has 4, God help them.
They were prob encouraged to hurt him too, what kind of adults will they become

It's easy to criticise social services (although sometimes it's justified) but consider this.
We don't hear about the excellent work they do but we do hear about it n the occasions when they fail.

When they do fail it is because an innocent child has been abused or murdered.

They have to spot signs of abuse and neglect, but at the same time the emphasis is on keeping children within their family environment - with the help of the family support systems that are struggling to cope
In this case it did not seem to be a case of offering any support. Signs of dreadful abuse were missed and warning messages from others, including family and teacher, were ignored.

We no longer have the death penalty unfortunately.
These two horrors deserve life sentences.
By that, I mean to the rest of their natural lives.
Never any prospect of release.
Fortunately, they will both be given a very hard time in prison.

We all realise social services are struggling but even when the alarm is raised there seems to be no action taken. Surely when they are alerted to abuse those children should take priority over everything else. Or are we saying each social worker has dozens of abused children on their books?

Calistemon

^It's easy to criticise social services (although sometimes it's justified) but consider this.^
We don't hear about the excellent work they do but we do hear about it n the occasions when they fail.

When they do fail it is because an innocent child has been abused or murdered.

They have to spot signs of abuse and neglect, but at the same time the emphasis is on keeping children within their family environment - with the help of the family support systems that are struggling to cope
In this case it did not seem to be a case of offering any support. Signs of dreadful abuse were missed and warning messages from others, including family and teacher, were ignored.

Signs of dreadful abuse were missed and warning messages from others, including family and teacher, were ignored.

Ah, those missed opportunities again. A polite way of describing incompetence.

BTW, my comment was neither in defence of, nor an attack on, social workers.

One thing for sure though, there appears to be a huge caseload and too few social workers to cope with them. We just cannot keep cutting services to the bone.

Of course, the pandemic was a perfect smokescreen for the step-mother and father, there is that, too.

I felt very miserable when the lockdown started because I knew this would heighten tensions in cramped households, which in some cases would lead to abuse of babies and small children. I didn't even want to think about all the little ones locked up with angry, frustrated parents. It was too much to take in and there was absolutely nothing I could do. Some people should not have children at all.

Chestnut

We all realise social services are struggling but even when the alarm is raised there seems to be no action taken. Surely when they are alerted to abuse those children should take priority over everything else. Or are we saying each social worker has dozens of abused children on their books?

I have been out of front line child protection for 9 years so I can’t really comment with authority, but even 9 years ago we were simply ‘firefighting’ - dealing with referral after referral with no time to reflect or prioritise properly. I can only imagine things have got worse since then, with cuts year on year.

That is no excuse - there can be no excuse - but social workers are human and this kind of practice cannot be sustained without a cost to the individual. Again, I’m not making excuses, if mistakes were made they need to be acknowledged and explained, but was there really a need to name the social worker and support worker who visited little Arthur shortly before he died? What does that achieve other than to allow us all to place blame, oh and possibly to make them targets for some kind of retribution. Is that what we want?

It’s right to name them. They are responsible for what happened.

The Rotherham Abuse was ignored for years, no lockdown then.

The jury have been told they will never have to serve on a jury again as it was so harrowing. I read they asked for 1 minute’s silence in court for Arthur. Poor little boy.

The fathers mother reported him, she couldn’t stop it, if anyone had doubts about abuse you don’t give up, the social workers were hoodwinked, the people responsible are the evil pair and I hope they don’t see the light of day and get a hard time. If anyone thinks anyone is being abused persist, don’t give up, visit when not expected, call the police any doubts. That poor child had no voice.

The DM has an extensive analysis of this case today. Innumerable family and friends had referred him to social services who had either ignored them or dismissed their concerns.

The head of Social Services was given the job AFTER having been dismissed from a similar role in another council because the department was so badly run.

As they say , if someone made that up you would say it was ridiculous, but someone did not make that up, it was whaat actually happened.

I am not usually a vindictive person, but in this case I would like to see the child's step mother and father made to suffer the same tortures and humiliations they made Arthur suffer and for just as long, if not longer.

Germanshepherdsmum

It’s right to name them. They are responsible for what happened.

Judge and jury Germanshepherdsmum ? Are you privy to the discussions that took place after their visit, or the decision made by their manager? Because I can assure you that social workers do not make decisions about further action in these cases.

The social worker in the Peter Connelly case received death threats and had to go into hiding. Would you feel better if that happened to these workers as well?

I worked with child social workers in the early years of my career. Bloody useless in the face of harrowing cases. Endless case conferences going round in circles with no decisions made. Naming might instil responsibility.

That little boy asked to see a doctor, such a grown up equest
He told his uncle his father was going to kill him, how could he even begin to process that in his 6 year-old mind
6 little years, trying so hard to get help but nobody was hearing him
Crying out for his grandmother, his uncle
Why didn't the uncle or grandmother go in anyway and remove him, ok, they would be arrested-but that would have exposed the terrible truth surely
The parents probably bribed him with lies that (one) day they let him play in the garden (to hoodwink the SS) with false promises of more days like that, and, wanting to believe they did love him, that poor little boy did what they told him too, wanting to please them and for the hurt to stop
It's unbearable
The cruelty, manipulation, the deliberate, terrible abuse and breaking of all possible between a parent and their child
No punishment will take back what happened to Arthur, what he suffered, his horrible and terrifying death, and he must have known, trying to understand, in his little mind, knowing he was going to die, alone and terrified
It's too much to bear
It's traumatised everyone who has had to deal with it, not just us as the public