[Today's News] from [The Guardian]
Baby P mother and stepfather jailed for toddler's death
• Killing could have been prevented, official report says
• Stepfather also jailed for raping two-year-old girl
James Sturcke and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 May 2009 12.28 BST
Article history
Baby P's mother was jailed indefinitely today for causing or allowing her son's death, as an official report said the killing "could and should have been prevented".
The mother was told she would serve a minimum term of five years. "You are a manipulative and self-centred person, with a calculating side as well as a temper," the judge, Stephen Kramer, told Peter's mother.
Her boyfriend, 32, was given a 12-year sentence at the Old Bailey for his role in the killing of Baby P, now named as Peter. To run concurrently, he was also given life with a minimum term of 10 years for raping a two-year-old girl.
Jason Owen, 37, from Bromley, Kent, a lodger at the same home as the pair, was given an indeterminate sentence and told he would serve a minimum of three years.
Due to the time the mother has already served in custody, she could be eligible for parole in August 2012. Her boyfriend cannot be released until August 2017.
Neither Peter's mother nor her boyfriend can be named for legal reasons.
Peter was 17 months old when he was found dead in a blood-spattered cot in August 2007 with a broken back and fractured ribs.
He had more than 50 injuries despite being on the at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over eight months.
The sentencing came as a second review, by the Haringey safeguarding children board, said doctors, lawyers, police and social workers should have been able to stop the situation "in its tracks at the first serious incident".
Even after Peter was put under a child protection plan, his case was regarded as routine "with injuries expected as a matter of course". Agencies were "lacking urgency", "lacking thoroughness" and "insufficiently challenging to the parent".
The review found that agencies "did not exercise a strong enough sense of challenge" when dealing with Peter's mother and their outlook was "completely inadequate" to meet the challenges of the case.
Peter's mother showed no emotion in the Old Bailey until her boyfriend was sentenced to life. Her mouth fell open as she appeared to mouth "No". As she was led away, a woman's voice called out "fucking tramp".
Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP in Haringey, welcomed the sentence and the second report. "The guilty have at last been punished, but we still cannot rest until we fully understand how this poor little boy suffered so terribly, and for so long, under the noses of Haringey's children's services."
Featherstone praised the rigour of the second serious case review. "The first serious case review either showed clear incompetence or was a cover-up," she said.
"This one could not be more different from the first. It says exactly what we should have learnt at the start of this awful tragedy: Haringey council, health professionals and the police all failed to protect Baby Peter from three individuals who set out to harm him."
The judge told all three defendants that "significant force" had been used on Peter "on a number of occasions".
"Whatever the truth of what took place and the role and motivation of each individual, the result was that a child died in horrific circumstances with injuries that can only have caused great pain and distress prior to his death."
Peter's mother wrote a letter to the judge from prison that was read aloud in court yesterday.
In it she apologised for the pain and suffering she had caused and begged her family, including Peter's natural father, for forgiveness.
"I have lost all I hold dear to me. Now every day of my life is full of guilt and trying to come to terms with my failure as a mother," she wrote.
"I punish myself on a daily basis and there is not a day that goes by where I don't cry at some point."
Peter's natural father told the Old Bailey yesterday of his horror at the knowledge that the little boy suffered months of pain, fear and loneliness before his death.
He said his life had become a "living nightmare" since losing his son.
In a victim impact statement, the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told of the moment he was confronted with his son's lifeless body in a north London hospital. "He appeared to be asleep, and I just wanted to pick him up and take him home. But there was nothing I could do for him.
"I kissed him on his forehead and said goodbye. My son was gone forever."
Peter's death prompted an outpouring of public anger and led to strong criticism of the social workers, police officers and health professionals responsible for protecting him.
Five employees of Haringey council in north London were sacked, including the children's services director Sharon Shoesmith, and the General Medical Council has suspended two doctors involved in the case.
Baby P mother and stepfather jailed for toddler's death
• Killing could have been prevented, official report says
• Stepfather also jailed for raping two-year-old girl
James Sturcke and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 May 2009 12.28 BST
Article history
Baby P's mother was jailed indefinitely today for causing or allowing her son's death, as an official report said the killing "could and should have been prevented".
The mother was told she would serve a minimum term of five years. "You are a manipulative and self-centred person, with a calculating side as well as a temper," the judge, Stephen Kramer, told Peter's mother.
Her boyfriend, 32, was given a 12-year sentence at the Old Bailey for his role in the killing of Baby P, now named as Peter. To run concurrently, he was also given life with a minimum term of 10 years for raping a two-year-old girl.
Jason Owen, 37, from Bromley, Kent, a lodger at the same home as the pair, was given an indeterminate sentence and told he would serve a minimum of three years.
Due to the time the mother has already served in custody, she could be eligible for parole in August 2012. Her boyfriend cannot be released until August 2017.
Neither Peter's mother nor her boyfriend can be named for legal reasons.
Peter was 17 months old when he was found dead in a blood-spattered cot in August 2007 with a broken back and fractured ribs.
He had more than 50 injuries despite being on the at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over eight months.
The sentencing came as a second review, by the Haringey safeguarding children board, said doctors, lawyers, police and social workers should have been able to stop the situation "in its tracks at the first serious incident".
Even after Peter was put under a child protection plan, his case was regarded as routine "with injuries expected as a matter of course". Agencies were "lacking urgency", "lacking thoroughness" and "insufficiently challenging to the parent".
The review found that agencies "did not exercise a strong enough sense of challenge" when dealing with Peter's mother and their outlook was "completely inadequate" to meet the challenges of the case.
Peter's mother showed no emotion in the Old Bailey until her boyfriend was sentenced to life. Her mouth fell open as she appeared to mouth "No". As she was led away, a woman's voice called out "fucking tramp".
Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP in Haringey, welcomed the sentence and the second report. "The guilty have at last been punished, but we still cannot rest until we fully understand how this poor little boy suffered so terribly, and for so long, under the noses of Haringey's children's services."
Featherstone praised the rigour of the second serious case review. "The first serious case review either showed clear incompetence or was a cover-up," she said.
"This one could not be more different from the first. It says exactly what we should have learnt at the start of this awful tragedy: Haringey council, health professionals and the police all failed to protect Baby Peter from three individuals who set out to harm him."
The judge told all three defendants that "significant force" had been used on Peter "on a number of occasions".
"Whatever the truth of what took place and the role and motivation of each individual, the result was that a child died in horrific circumstances with injuries that can only have caused great pain and distress prior to his death."
Peter's mother wrote a letter to the judge from prison that was read aloud in court yesterday.
In it she apologised for the pain and suffering she had caused and begged her family, including Peter's natural father, for forgiveness.
"I have lost all I hold dear to me. Now every day of my life is full of guilt and trying to come to terms with my failure as a mother," she wrote.
"I punish myself on a daily basis and there is not a day that goes by where I don't cry at some point."
Peter's natural father told the Old Bailey yesterday of his horror at the knowledge that the little boy suffered months of pain, fear and loneliness before his death.
He said his life had become a "living nightmare" since losing his son.
In a victim impact statement, the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told of the moment he was confronted with his son's lifeless body in a north London hospital. "He appeared to be asleep, and I just wanted to pick him up and take him home. But there was nothing I could do for him.
"I kissed him on his forehead and said goodbye. My son was gone forever."
Peter's death prompted an outpouring of public anger and led to strong criticism of the social workers, police officers and health professionals responsible for protecting him.
Five employees of Haringey council in north London were sacked, including the children's services director Sharon Shoesmith, and the General Medical Council has suspended two doctors involved in the case.
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