Where Is A Child In More Danger?
5 02 2007With a childfree person, who doesn’t like kids? Nope. In foster care? No. With a parent?
Sadly, yes.
If this horrifying report is to be believed, with its parents. The story should carry a health warning – e.g. contains graphic disturbing detail. Come to that, some parents ought to carry a health warning. Having kids is a no-brainer. Really, it is, because almost no thought is required. But ensuring they come to no harm from their “loving” parents appears to be a lot harder. Perhaps advising some people not parent at all should be mandatory, instead of pressuring everyone to reproduce and ruining the lives of countless children (and their subsequent children). But read Fury over child torture case and see what you think. This is my take.
Britain’s child protection services will face severe criticism this week, when a couple will be sentenced for torturing their four year old daughter, writes the Observer. (Yes, you read correctly).
Kimberley Harte, 23 and Samuel Duncan, 26, poured boiling liquid over the child’s hands, ripped out her hair, kicked her repeatedly in the groin and locked her in the toilet over seven terrifying weeks of the worst abuse experts said they had ever seen.
This is saying something, because I remember the Victoria Climbie case (referenced in the news story) back in 2000. In that case, eight year old Victoria was tortured to death by her parents. Social Services was supposed to learn lessons from that horrific episode, but, it seems, they still have more to learn.
The Hartes forced their daughter, who has cerebral palsy to eat her own faeces and take cold baths. They’ve been found guilty of grievous bodily harm and could face life sentences. My view? A life sentence is too bloody good for them. Someone should make them do exactly what they did to their four year old – only make it 10 times as tortuous. Make it super-sized. I’m hoping they go to a prison where the inmates have a special “welcome” for those who harm children. I probably won’t get my wish.
Is it not a fucked up system that allows a child to be in the care of monsters like this? Now being questioned are Social Services decisions. Again. The four year old had been in care because of domestic violence between her parents. She was returned to her parents even though her foster carers said the child was distressed. Their warnings were ignored. She was handed back to her parents last January and in March was found close to death, having been tortured from Feb 1 to March 18.
Lest you are thinking, well, these are rare cases, they are unfortunately not so rare anymore, if they ever were.
In 2005, Ukleigha Batten-Froggatt, a six-year-old who was on the ‘at risk’ register, was strangled by her mother’s boyfriend in their flat in north London. In 2003, Toni-Ann Byfield, was shot in north-west London while in the care of Birmingham social services.
But back to The Harte child. She was seriously failed by everyone, from her monster parents to those who should have protected her from her monster parents.
Social workers allowed her to return home despite strong objections from her foster carers. Imagine how they feel now. The foster carers, I mean, not the bloody social workers. And once she was home, staff readily accepted injuries as “accidents” made “minimal contact” with the father, and, in FIVE visits in TWO months, believed the child was “out with her father.” Professionals were too “parent focused”, and failed to see the child on her own. In short, they should have been more sceptical.
Julie Jones, deputy chief executive and director of children’s services said:
‘It is clear that those staff who saw this child and her family could not have foreseen the injuries she sustained.’
I think she is being rather disingenuous. Unless she means that only when staff foresee horrific injuries should they pay any attention to the warning signs that such injuries have a high probability of happening.They failed to listen to the foster carers, failed to focus on the child and decided instead to believe the abusive parents. The staff who saw this child and her family ignored the signs and once more a child, who has the expectation of love, care and protection was left to the “tender mercies “of her “loving” parents. Poor wretched child.
Shame. Triple shame.
As a childfree person, blogging this story shortly after the one about the sextuplets denied care by their supposedly loving but religious parents makes me feel more than sad. And I wonder how it is it that childfree people who decide not to have children because they either dislike kids, or fear that their own temperament makes them less than ideal parent material are criticised for their decision, childfree people, regardless of whether or not they like kids are called ignorantly called “child-haters”, and parents who think nothing of popping out a child and then going on to harm them or even kill them are called…parents.
Truly, we have a long way to go.
Original story by Anushka Asthana in The Observer
i dislike kids with a passion, but i would never want to see harm done to them, their parents yes..
the childfree think about their decisions, their choices, a lot of parents dont, its have a kid, everything will be provided.
as you have said before having a kid is no thought necessary, part of it comes from the pressure to have children, these people may have been ok, without their kid, without the societal pressure to have kids. (but then again maybe not). made them have something they are incapable of having.
what they did was horrific, and they deserve all that pain and more, there are certain crimes that i think should be punished by death, and i think these 2 people should be dealt with in that manner, but only with absolute proof.
i know people who have been abused, quite a few dont have kids because they want to stop the abuse from happening to the next generation.
in part its society is to blame, (religion if they are uber religious and need a quiverful), part its themselves. and part its the people who put that child into that situation.
I can’t believe Social Services allowed that to happen. They could of left her with the foster parents, but no they hand her over to monsters. I can not believe they let five visits go by without even actually seeing the child. It should be illegal for certain people to procreate. Honestly.
Society should accept the responsibility of deciding whether or not they are fit to be parents. True, loving parents. And if not, then take a trip to the doc and make sure you wont have any.
Reading this post made me livid.
Several years ago I had a wonderful roomie who grew up the youngest in a family of 10…yep, 10!
This family was also a foster family…took in 3,000 kids over 10 years. My roomie told me horror story after horror story of how his mom and dad would get a call in the night asking if they take in ‘a child that needs your help NOW’.
The children his family got were in bad shape…the foster agency knew they could send the kids that needed it the most to his family and all would be good as long as they were under this family’s roof.
Then one day they got an adorable 3 y/o tow head who had been abused in ways I don’t even want to share. It was that bad. Let’s just say the biological parents thought it was more important to smoke crack and shoot heroin than to be loving parents.
So this family kept this little boy for 4 years. (He had a 2 y/o sister that was fostered with another family.) My friends family loved him, provided him with therapy which he badly needed, helped him interact with a ‘normal’ family and gave him a chance at becoming a ‘normal’ little boy.
Then the bio parents wanted him back. Said they had changed…cleaned up their lives. The foster parents fought it but in the end had to give him back to his bio parents.
It lasted one week and the parents were re-arrested…for doing what they had done before.
The Foster Parents had had it. They put their foot down and DEMANDED they be allowed to adopt him and keep him safe. Their wish was granted.
When it was all said and done, the little boy was finally safe. His little sister who was fostered with another family and had to be returned to the bio parents as well? A different, sadder ending for her. She never made it out alive.
@Janette - welcome to Like It Is. I really wish that that there was some better way of protecting these kids, but society believes that the parents are their ultimate protectors and it usually takes months of suffering for them to see otherwise. It really should be illegal for some parents to be able to have children.
@Kath - Thanks for this story. Hmm, 3,000 kids over 10 years. And that’s just one foster family. Now what does that tell us? I just wonder why the Services are so ready to believe parents when they see the damage they’ve already done. I was so angry when I read about the Harte child that I almost didn’t blog it… but then I thought people need to be reminded again and again that this is going on. Some parents aren’t just unfit. They’re criminals who are having kids only to ruin their lives.
@mercurior - very good point - this is a common reason that many people decide not to have children. There is something very wrong with a society (along with religions) that put so much pressure on people to have kids and then completely fail the kids.
you’d think after countless cases of parents abusing their children they would be more cautious about leaving the children in the parents possession. Especially after people are reporting signs of abuse.
update sadistic couple were today sentenced to 10-and-a-half years and 11-and-a-half years
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=434906&in_page_id=1770
@mercurior - thanks for this - saw it yesterday. It’s too good for them. They should have got life. At least.