h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6343693.stm

A couple in London have been jailed for 11 years and 10years for torturing their 4yearold daughter who has cerebral palsy.

They were told by the judge that they would never be allowed to have small children in their care.

They will be 34 and 37 years old when the are let out (assuming full term). Certainly not too old to have more kids and what would happen to the baby when it was born? Foster care etc?

Would it not be easier and simplier just sterilise both of them and remove any chance of them having kids?

They still could pose a danger, regardless of their infertility.

Sounds like they're fully capable of abduction

Let 'em sleep with the fishes , I say



Lifetime incarceration or GPS implants?

Those people deserve to die. Seriously. That's ing ed up, man.

I also have to wonder how, if child protection services did indeed visit them over 20 times, how they missed something this horrible.

, man.

Too scared to do anything without major proof in case they get sued by the family because they made a mistake?

The child protection service people are primarily there to get a paycheck at the end of the month. You don't put that at risk unless you a darn sure there are problems.

Of course, they could just have been crap at their jobs.

I think I'm right in saying that they'd probably be on the list of those who would not be allowed to look after children again. That would include any of their own - there have been cases where a mother has had a baby taken away by social services at birth, to be fostered.

Not a happy start for an infant, particularly in the current climate of seeking out birth parents.

At least the child in question in this case appears to have a happier future now.

These people shouldn't be imprisoned, they should be indefinitely sectioned... anyone who would force their own daughter to eat her own faeces is clearly mentally ill.

These are not people - they are worse than animals.

I don't believe in capital punishment but I think I would make an acception for this monstrous pair. But not before they'd had their hair pulled out by the roots and been doused in boiling water.

*deep breath* Okay, calmer now. I certainly think that life imprisonment with no chance of parole EVER would have been more appropriate.

Re: social services. I recall a story about a young girl in New York who was tortured for years by her parents and finally murdered. Apparently they were also visited several times by childcare agency workers after neighbours complained about hearing the child screaming. Or something like that - memory is a bit fuzzy on that one. But I remember thinking at the time how awful it was that people *heard* this going on and yet did nothing other than pick up a phone, even when the torture was clearly continuing.

az

after the Victoria Climbie case this sort of thing was supposed to be less likely to happen
I heard the head of the child protection department for the area on the radio yesterday and I have never ever so much wanted to slap someone.

It seems clear to me that if the guidelines say that the children should be spoken to alone - and this girl had an older brother too - then if that doesn't happen, at the latest the next day (if not sooner) that child should be back in foster care.

and yes,I realise that there are circumstances where the parents wouldn't be able to comply but for cryin' out loud! How many more times?

Apparently she got a broken arm, the circumstances for that can't have been followed up properly. On more than one occasion the social worker only saw the mother because "the child was out with the father"

HELLO!

Apparently they "made strenuous efforts" to reschedule after that happened.

Not strenuous enough,obviously.

Now I know mistakes happen, and child abuse will happen. But how many frackin' times does it have to happen to a child on the At Risk register?

Any social workers here care to comment?

Funny, the Victoria Climbie case was mentioned the other day on a thread. The poster pointed out how things had improved so much since then and the Social Services had learnt valuable lessons.

The most valuable lesson they seem to have learned is how to avoid being the ones holding the parcel when the music stops.

My mother is a District Nurse and regularly has to deal with the victims of domestic abuse, battered kids, abused disabed and elderly. Over 35 years of experience has led her to regard Social Workers as lower than dog turds. I've seen her come home crying or flying into a rage at the activities (or lack of) of the SS.

Ever seen a kid whose mouth is used as an ashtray? Ever seen an old woman hiding under a bed from her son-in-law? Ever seen a woman with maggots in her back from being whipped or a child with a broken arm that takes over three years to mend because he keeps re-breaking it "by accident"?

All real examples. All regarded as insufficient evidence of abuse. All let down by the SS.

The SS? The SW you mean?

Presumably Social Services who employ the social workers?

Deb