Baby P death: 'They rubbed chocolate on his face to hide the

bruises'
A 17-month-old boy on a child protection register died after suffering
months of abuse. As his mother and two men face jail after the end of today's
trial, questions are being asked once more about a failure in the care system in
the London borough of Haringey eight years after Victoria Climbié's death

The scale of the cruelty to which Baby P had been subjected became

apparent at the postmortem examination. The pathologist who examined his
bruised body found eight fractured ribs, a spine broken with such force that it
looked like a car crash injury, and a tooth that must have been swallowed after a
violent blow to the face.

He also noted two missing fingernails, a missing toenail, a tear to the baby's
ear as well as marks — possibly from a dog's teeth — in his scalp.

The brief life of the boy, known in court only as Baby P for legal reasons,
began on March 1 2006 when he was born in north London to a 25-year-old
mother and a man she had met when she was 16 and he was 33. Within three
months of his birth, his father had left the family home and his mother had
begun a relationship with a man she met in a pub.

Following the death of the boy on August 3 last year, three people were
charged with murder – the boy's mother and her boyfriend, neither of whom can
be named for legal reasons, and a second man, Jason Owen, who was a lodger in
the house. At the start of the trial in September, the mother admitted causing or
allowing the boy's death; last week the judge ordered the jury to clear the mother
and Owen of murder. Today a jury found the 32-year-old boyfriend and Owen,
37,guilty of causing or allowing the boy's death.

The first clear signs of abuse began to appear on the child's body in
December 2006, a month after the boyfriend moved in with the mother. On
December 11, she took the child to her GP, who noticed that the baby had bruises
on his forehead, nose, chest and right shoulder. When the mother failed to
provide a reasonable explanation, the GP sent her to the Whittington hospital in
Archway, north London.

The baby was examined by a consultant paediatrician, Dr Heather

Mackinnon, who concluded the bruises were probably not accidental. Although
Baby P's mother said he had fallen off the sofa, Dr Mackinnon wrote in her
notes: "Not to be allowed home. Police protection order if necessary."

Four days later, Baby P was discharged and placed, informally, in the care of
a family friend while police and social workers investigated. The social workers
who visited the council flat in Haringey that housed the family and three dogs
found it was dirty, untidy, and smelt of urine.

On December 19, Baby P's mother and grandmother were arrested for
assaulting him. On December 22, Baby P was placed on the Haringey child
protection register under the categories of neglect and physical abuse.

A brief respite

The period the child spent in the care of the family friend must have been
one of the happiest of his life. For the month he was with her, he was described
as a quiet and placid little boy who was no trouble at all. More significantly, he
did not develop any new bruises.

By the time Baby P was returned to his mother on January 26 2007, she had
been moved into a house in Tottenham, north London. What the social services
did not know was that the boyfriend had also moved with her.

The mother had promised to cooperate with the allocated social worker,
Maria Ward, and the health visitor, Paulette Thomas, to get Baby P's name off
the child protection register.
 A friend of the mother who visited her at home in early April recalled
seeing a withdrawn and bruised Baby P sitting in the garden eating dirt.
The mother told her that he had grown fond of the woman who had looked after
him for a month. "She said he wanted picking up and cuddles all the time," said
the friend.

Two days later, Baby P was taken to the North Middlesex hospital with
swelling and bruising on the left side of his head. His mother claimed he
had been pushed over by an 18-month-old child and had hit his head on a
marble fireplace.

Medical staff who examined the child became concerned about the mother's
explanation, and Baby P was admitted to hospital and social services were
informed. However, once Baby P had been given the all-clear for meningitis, he
was allowed home. Social services provided the family with a fireguard.

Losing contact

It became obvious that something more substantial would be needed to

protect Baby P on Friday June 1 last year. Ward made an unannounced visit just
before lunchtime that day and found him lying on the sofa under a blanket. His
face was red and she saw bruises under his chin. Four days later, the mother was
arrested for a second time.

Although senior officers felt Baby P should not be returned home, the
decision was taken on a "multi-agency basis" to allow Baby P back into his
mother's care — albeit under the supervision of the family friend who had looked
after him before.

By the end of June, Owen and his 15-year-old girlfriend had moved into the
house and contact between the mother and Ward and Thomas had become
erratic.
 The last time Ward saw Baby P was on July 30. He was sitting in his buggy
in the hall, his face, hands and clothes smeared with chocolate. Even though he
was restless and fidgety he managed to smile at her. Owen later told police that
the mother and her lover had rubbed chocolate over Baby P to hide his injuries.

On August 1, the mother took Baby P to the child development centre at St

Anne's hospital in Tottenham. There he was examined by a consultant
paediatrician, Dr Sabah al-Zayyat, who noted that Baby P appeared "cranky" and
"miserable" but did not find any indication that he had fractured ribs or a broken
back.

However, two medical experts told the court that they believed those
injuries would already have been evident.

During the trial, the doctor told the court: "I did examine him. He didn't
look any different from a child of his age with a common cold. He was
sitting without support. There was no reason to suspect anything else."

The next day, his mother was told that she would face no further action
over the assault. But at 11.35am the day after that, on August 3 2007, an
ambulance was called to the house. Its crew found Baby P already stiff and blue
in his cot. He was taken to North Middlesex hospital where he was pronounced
dead at 12.20pm.

His mother was arrested that afternoon, while police caught up with her
boyfriend and Owen at a campsite in Epping Forest 11 days later.

Lessons learnt?

Dr al-Zayyat is being investigated by the general medical council and has

been made the subject of an interim order that requires her to be supervised by a
named consultant.
 The police concede that things could have been done better during the
December investigation, but say the biggest factor in the tragedy was the
boyfriend's hidden presence.

Officers say some lessons have been learnt from Baby P's death; they say
they are now more confident about challenging the recommendations made by
other agencies and about sharing information.

"We know that the child was killed unlawfully and that he suffered horrible,
horrible injuries," said one detective. "[But] these three adults killed that child.
Nobody else. We had a mother who was purporting to cooperate and who again
and again was taking her kid to various doctors and support agencies. But it's
now clear that she constantly conspired to keep from us what was going on.

"If only we'd known what these adults were like."

In a recorded interview with Baby P's mother following her second arrest in
June 2007, another detective noted: "Either he's the unluckiest kid in the world
or it's something more than this."

Статья рассказывает о том, что мама, убившая своего ребенка, теперь

тайно общается со своими старшими детьми. Автор использовал ласковое
прозвище убитого ребенка Baby P, чтобы вызвать более сильные эмоции у
читателей. Mum’s Day используется не в своем прямом значении праздника
Дня Матери, а в значении дня, проведенного с матерью.