Questions raised over child abuse safeguards
By Kate Kelland
The case, which sparked comparisons with Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who imprisoned and raped his daughter for 24 years, has alarmed the nation. It comes barely two weeks after a mother and two men were found guilty of causing the death of the woman’s 17-month-old boy following horrific abuse.
A court in Sheffield heard that the 56-year-old father abused his daughters for 25 years and fathered nine children by them. He escaped the glare of the authorities by frequently moving his family.
He was jailed for life Tuesday.
Brown promised urgent investigations into what he called “unspeakable” abuse.
“People will rightly want to know how such abuse could go on for so long without the authorities, and the wider public services, discovering it and taking action,” Brown said.
“If there is a change to be made in the system and the system has failed, then we will change the system,” he told parliament.
The incest case, which is subject to strict reporting restrictions to protect the identity of his daughters, followed the conviction of a mother, her boyfriend and their lodger for causing the death of “Baby P.”
The toddler was battered, beaten and died despite repeated visits from local authorities responsible for child welfare.
“Baby P and the Sheffield father are just the tip of an iceberg of abuse and neglect, which needs now to be addressed strategically by government,” said Labour MP Graham Allen.
ABUSE
Details of the miserable life of Baby P shocked all the more because he was under the watch of Haringey social services, the same council that was exposed five years ago as failing in one of the worst child abuse cases.
Baby P suffered more than 40 injuries, including a broken back, before he died in August last year, despite being on the council’s “at risk” register and having been visited 60 times.
In the incest case, politicians and commentators asked how a father was able to continue a campaign of abuse—making his daughters pregnant 19 times—undetected for so long.
“Of course the question is how on earth did something like this happen without someone noticing?” said Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
Analysts said the two cases should prompt a deeper analysis of society, not just the inquiries Brown has promised.
“That such events could happen involving so many children for so long without attracting attention in 21st century Britain raises much wider, deeper and more uncomfortable questions about the country we live in,” The Independent declared.
Allen said more needed to be done to educate people about parenthood. “We need to examine the causes—like looking at Baby P’s mother and father and how they were raised—not just the symptoms,” he told Reuters.
“Unfortunately, we had better be ready for Babies Q R S T U V W X Y and Z, unless we are prepared to put more effort and money into early intervention.”
(Editing by Jodie Ginsberg and Philippa Fletcher)
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