At the time the case caused understandable outrage not just because of the shock that one human being could behave in such an unspeakable way to another human being let alone a child but because at the time of her death Victoria was under the care of Haringey councils child protection team. The great aunt and her partner were jailed for life for their part in causing the death and a public inquiry was started chaired by Lord Layman. When the inquiry finally published it's findings it identified 12 separate and individual occasions when Haringey council could and should have intervened to save Victoria's life and blamed her death on an "Unexcusable failure of the [child protection] system". In spite of the fact a child had been allowed to die of starvation and the cold in what is supposedly a first world country and the fact that at least on member of Haringey's child protection team, Sylvia Henry, was found to have lied to the inquiry no member of staff was prosecuted or lost their job over the incident. The inquiry did however make 108 separate recommendations to improve child protection services. According to Haringey councils most recent internal review all 108 of these recommendations had been fully implemented.
I was then with something like surprise that it was announced on Tuesday that Haringey council's child protection team had once again featured in the prosecution of a couple who had murdered a child known only as Baby P. The details of this case are not well known because as one reporter put it "The reporting restrictions in this case are so tight we can't even tell you what those restrictions are." What we do know however is that Baby P was a 17 month old infant who was beaten to death after suffering intense physical abuse at the hands of his mother and her National Front supporting boyfriend throughout his tragically short life. At the time of his death Baby P had 50 separate injuries including; A broken spine, 8 broken ribs, Cuts and Bruises all over his head and body, All his fingernails had been torn from their nail beds. He had deep cuts to his lips, eyes and face. His ears had nearly been torn from his head. The injury that caused his death was a punch to the face delivered with such force it caused bruising to the neck that eventually suffocated him
Baby P first came to the attention of Haringey Social Services in September 2006 when his mother complained to a GP that he was "a headbanger" who "bruised easily". Over the next two years the child's home was visited by numerous social workers health visitors including Sylvia Henry. The child was hospitalised for his injuries on several occasions and the mother was twice arrested was assault but on both occasions charges were drop and the child was returned to her. In the course of their visits members of the Child Protection team noted that the house was very unhygienic with stale urine on the floor and several dogs including a Rottweiler allowed to run wild. They also noted that the child had a number of obvious cuts and bruises, was paralysed from a broken back and had been trained, like a dog, to lie on the floor when his step-father clicked his fingers. Despite this Haringey council saw no reason to intervene.
It has since bee revealed that Harigney Council, in an attempt to cover up their own failures, had repeatedly tried to avoid giving evidence in the murder trial. Initially they attempted to obtain a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate which are normally only granted in cases of national security such as a terrorism trial. It was only after the Judge in the case issued a court order did they finally release the evidence that was used to convict Baby P's mother and step-father. As the verdict was announced the head of Haringey Council, Sharon Shoesmith a woman who is clearly rarely troubled by reality issued a statement saying that there was no evidence of Council wrong doing in the case, none of her staff would be punished and she saw no reason to apologise over the incident.
Understandably this display of outstanding arrogance caused outrage and led to one of the angriest exchanges I've ever seen in Parliament. Conservative leader David Cameron called for a external investigation into the incident and that any council employee who is found to have failed in their job is sacked and criminally prosecuted. Initially the government tried to side step the issue by accusing the Conservatives of playing party politics but have since relented ordering a review which is due to report in two weeks time. I can only presume that they've done this in the hope that by the time the review reports and find Haringey council to be excellent at their job the news cycle will have moved on and the issue can be quietly be swept under the carpet and the council can continue to be paid £100million a year for a job they clearly cannot do.
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