Death of Star Hobson - Toddler killed by mother's girlfriend

[TheReligion]

BBC News - Star Hobson: Savannah Brockhill guilty of murder
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-59637683

Alarming parallels with the murder of baby Arthur in the sense multiple referrals were made to Social Services which never appear to have been acted on.

I think this will end up in wide scale reform in the social care sector given this is the second high profile case where there appear to be a number of blatant failings.

The details of this case are pretty awful and the mother has also been prosecuted for allowing the death of her child.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

fecking terrible yet again.

I think this will end up in wide scale reform in the social care sector given this is the second high profile case where there appear to be a number of blatant failings.

You'll know this yourself; the only "reforms" will be politicians wagging their fingers saying that care workers should be doing more, while at the same time bleeding their funding even more.

 

[TheReligion]

fecking terrible yet again.


You'll know this yourself; the only "reforms" will be politicians wagging their fingers saying that care workers should be doing more, while at the same time bleeding their funding even more.

It can't be allowed though. The underfunding in public services is astonishing. It's a shame it takes things like this to happen for the average person to actually acknowledge the issue. It's the same with mental health and has been for years now. It's only in recent times the topic has become "current" but the lack of investment in that area of healthcare is scandalous.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Horrible, terrible stuff but we seem to keep letting it happen. What's the solution?

 

[esmufc07]

Incredibly sad. What a beautiful little girl. Cases like these really get to me. The only good thing (if that is the correct phrase to use) is that she is no longer suffering. RIP little one.

 

[Deery]

Horrible what they did to that little girl, playing psychological games on her, then beating her and eventually killing her. I do hope there is a special place in hell for those people, pure evil scum..

 

[hobbers]

Seems like another case of a psychopathic partner leading some gullible parent into torturing their own child.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Seems like another case of a psychopathic partner leading some gullible parent into torturing their own child.

That's giving the parent an out, really. The truth is they are usually so obsessed with their new partner that the child ends up just being a hindrance.

 

[hobbers]

That's giving the parent an out, really. The truth is they are usually so obsessed with their new partner that the child ends up just being a hindrance.

I'm not giving them an out, they're scum.

Just that it's the same pattern as the previous case. A simpleton gets a psychotic new partner and tries to impress them with child abuse, then it keeps escalating and the new partner ends up killing the child.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

I'm not giving them an out, they're scum.

Just that it's the same pattern as the previous case. A simpleton gets a psychotic new partner and tries to impress them with child abuse, then it keeps escalating and the new partner ends up killing the child.

Fair enough but that's oversimplifying it, imo. Both parties hate the child for what they represent; a connection to the parent's former life and ex-partner. Then there is the added element of the child being baggage that they'd like to discard but can't outright abandon or murder, so this drawn out, tortuous demise happens, accidentally but by design. Children just can't take sustained abuse like that.

The failure of authorities to act in these cases is shameful.

 

[calodo2003]

That's giving the parent an out, really. The truth is they are usually so obsessed with their new partner that the child ends up just being a hindrance.

Or just an accessory, a something not a someone.

 

[Eyepopper]

May they never see the light of day again.

Can we find out where they'll be serving their sentences and start donating bags of sugar and electric kettles for the other prisoners?

 

[Peter van der Gea]

Scum

 

[Scarlett Dracarys]

Seems like another case of a psychopathic partner leading some gullible parent into torturing their own child.

I'm a parent and there's no way in hell anyone could ever convince me to hurt my child. She's a monster and I blame her even more than her partner. It was her responsibility to protect her daughter against dangerous people like that.
Such a beautiful innocent child. She had to be all kinds of fecked up to have the guts to hurt her.

 

[DavelinaJolie]

Alarming parallels with the murder of baby Arthur in the sense multiple referrals were made to Social Services which never appear to have been acted on.

I think this will end up in wide scale reform in the social care sector given this is the second high profile case where there appear to be a number of blatant failings.

I think it will lead to more villifying of Social Services for their failures without looking at the cause, causing more staff to leave and fewer people to see it as a worthwhile career option. Combined with the continued constricting budgets you'll see more and more of this.

You get what you pay for, we're paying for less and less each year. Eventually dedication to trying to improve people's lives won't be enough to counter the overwhelming sense of anxiety and stress the jobs cause.

Just speaking as someone that used to be in Social Services, of course.

Edit: I forgot, there'll also be more legislation brought in which makes more work for Social Work teams that are losing staff.

 

[FireballXL5]

The babysitter raised her concerns with social services who in turn gave the women a heads up that they were coming round. Why would they do that?

Star Hobson babysitter criticises social services response

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-59660203

 

[Oldyella]

5 individual referrals and nothing happened. Shocking stuff. Honestly, if I was the child's father or grandparent I would have been tempted to wrap a bat around the step mothers head when the referrals were being ignored but you could see what was happening.

Politicians will make some noise about reforms and reviews, and then continue to slash funding.

 

[ivaldo]

The babysitter raised her concerns with social services who in turn gave the women a heads up that they were coming round. Why would they do that?

Star Hobson babysitter criticises social services response

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-59660203

The parents can simply refuse entrance at this stage. There is no legal requirement for them to allow a social worker into their home. It's only when they are subject to CP does a visit become statutory.

 

[FireballXL5]

The parents can simply refuse entrance at this stage. There is no legal requirement for them to allow a social worker into their home. It's only when they are subject to CP does a visit become statutory.

But why give them prior warning and the opportunity to cover their tracks?

 

[esmufc07]

I don’t know how this can be seen by anybody and no further action taken?

Spoiler: Shows Star’s bruising

 

[ivaldo]

But why give them prior warning and the opportunity to cover their tracks?

They can turn the SW away anyway. I can't speak for the LA, but I'm sure they're criminally underfunded, and it could've simply been a case of trying to work smartly with the resources they have. I cannot overstate how poorly funded social care is. No one wants to do the job now. My local authority Family Assessment and Safeguarding Team are currently offering a £10k relocation package, £2k welcome payment for simply staying in the team for 6 months, and a further £3k for referring that level 2 qualified social worker. I'm sure there's negligence factored in here, but it's really not surprising things are missed and short cuts are being taken.

 

[pascell]

I don’t know how this can be seen by anybody and no further action taken?

Spoiler: Shows Star’s bruising

Absolutely shocking how someone can treat a child like that.

 

[Lay]

Scum.

25 years for the girlfriend and 8 years for the mother. Seems extremely lenient

 

[esmufc07]

8 years seems extremely low in all honesty. That said the maximum she could have been sentenced I read was 14 years for what she was found guilty of. Assuming there are some mitigating factors.

 

[Jippy]

8 years seems extremely low in all honesty. That said the maximum she could have been sentenced I read was 14 years for what she was found guilty of. Assuming there are some mitigating factors.

She has learning difficulties and is very gullible, with a low IQ.
Typing that out, it kind of sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if she's left alone parenting.
There seems to be a lot of these exceedingly grim cases at the moment.

 

[balaks]

Absolutely horrendous especially after the awful death of that young lad which came to light last week. Unfortunately this is due to several factors. Firstly the funding for mental health and social services has been cut for years - there are multiple jobs unfilled, high rates of sickness and basically they do not have anywhere near the resources required to do the job effectively and they have far bigger case loads than is safe. Secondly - there has been a shift from risk averse practice to risk promotion practice - that means that kids who in the past might have been removed from their parent's care due to concerns now will stay there as the threshold to remove a child is much higher than it used to be - partially due to lack of resources to do adequate family support but also because of the courts being more reluctant to act. Believe it or not it is actually extremely difficult to remove a child permanently and it requires a huge amount of evidence and work to get through the court process. The more under pressure a person/service is, the higher the threshold becomes to access services - it's not good but it is the reality.

Not saying there were not mistakes made in this case because it certainly seems that there was however it needs to be seen in the context of the overall situation which is absolutely fecking dire.

 

[Peter van der Gea]

She has learning difficulties and is very gullible, with a low IQ.
Typing that out, it kind of sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if she's left alone parenting.
There seems to be a lot of these exceedingly grim cases at the moment.

If that's true, she should have had support from the social services from the very beginning.

Social services may have a problem with staffing, but they prioritise in a weird way.

I mentioned in Arthur's thread that my children have been on a CIN for over 8 years. The reason? I'm a child abuse survivor. An Asian one.

It's caused me problems with my mental health and I get triggered sometimes. However, I've done everything I can to safeguard my kids, including me paying for a second flat, so if I'm in a bad state mentally, I can do it away from my kids. On top of that, I've done every course they've wanted me to, parental classes, anger management, drug and alcohol awareness, DBT Skills, but they won't leave us alone, despite my kids presenting extremely well and having weekly sessions with the school counsellor. I've never hit my kids and barely ever raise my voice above my "inside" voice.

Maybe if they prioritised children who are actually being hurt rather than the kids of someone who was abused, maybe they'd be able to save some children.

 

[DavelinaJolie]

They can turn the SW away anyway. I can't speak for the LA, but I'm sure they're criminally underfunded, and it could've simply been a case of trying to work smartly with the resources they have. I cannot overstate how poorly funded social care is. No one wants to do the job now. My local authority Family Assessment and Safeguarding Team are currently offering a £10k relocation package, £2k welcome payment for simply staying in the team for 6 months, and a further £3k for referring that level 2 qualified social worker. I'm sure there's negligence factored in here, but it's really not surprising things are missed and short cuts are being taken.

Not to mention Social Workers can get better pay with an Agency and be guaranteed work because of the mass of vacancies, so LAs end up paying more just to fill seats with qualified workers. My LA is offering a similar refer a social worker payment, it's crazy.

It's really easy to look at this from the outside and say how can this get missed and how come they do this and not that. When you see the workloads people are carrying it's a nightmare, when you then factor in the reduction budgets they have to work with when getting help in its even worse.

I was seriously considering a Social Work apprenticeship a couple of years ago, now I'm working in IT and much happier for it.

 

[calodo2003]

If that's true, she should have had support from the social services from the very beginning.

Social services may have a problem with staffing, but they prioritise in a weird way.

I mentioned in Arthur's thread that my children have been on a CIN for over 8 years. The reason? I'm a child abuse survivor. An Asian one.

It's caused me problems with my mental health and I get triggered sometimes. However, I've done everything I can to safeguard my kids, including me paying for a second flat, so if I'm in a bad state mentally, I can do it away from my kids. On top of that, I've done every course they've wanted me to, parental classes, anger management, drug and alcohol awareness, DBT Skills, but they won't leave us alone, despite my kids presenting extremely well and having weekly sessions with the school counsellor. I've never hit my kids and barely ever raise my voice above my "inside" voice.

Maybe if they prioritised children who are actually being hurt rather than the kids of someone who was abused, maybe they'd be able to save some children.

What’s a ‘CIN?’

 

[ivaldo]

What’s a ‘CIN?’

Child in need.

 

[Peter van der Gea]

What’s a ‘CIN?’

Child In Need plan. The next one higher than that is a Child Protection Plan, and then court

 

[RedTiger]

BBC News - Star Hobson: Savannah Brockhill guilty of murder
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-59637683

Alarming parallels with the murder of baby Arthur in the sense multiple referrals were made to Social Services which never appear to have been acted on.

I think this will end up in wide scale reform in the social care sector given this is the second high profile case where there appear to be a number of blatant failings.

The details of this case are pretty awful and the mother has also been protected for allowing the death of her child.

Did you mean prosecuted?

 

[calodo2003]

Thanks!

 

[TheReligion]

Did you mean prosecuted?

I did. Phone autocorrect for you. Thanks!

 

[RedTiger]

I don’t know how this can be seen by anybody and no further action taken?

Spoiler: Shows Star’s bruising

I hope that bitch of a partner is beaten every single day of her sentence.

 

[pocco]

My blood was boiling watching the news report of this last night. I hope, like Arthur's parents, they get beat within an inch of their life for every day they remain on this earth. I'd have don't it myself if given the chance, women or not. Absolutely disgusting, vile scumbags.

 

[ivaldo]

Over the last decade Section 47 enquiries have gone up 126%. In that time children's services have seen budgets cut by around 30%. It doesn't take a genius to realize those numbers don't add up.

 

[Bwuk]

I was in genuine tears when I first read about this.

As a father myself, I can't imagine how anyone could be so evil.

Rest in Peace Star.

 

[2mufc0]

5 fecking referrals, the funding explanation doesn't wash here, look at the bruise ffs. Another one failed not only by social services but the police too.

This makes me so angry.

 

[Ady87]

I don’t know how this can be seen by anybody and no further action taken?

Spoiler: Shows Star’s bruising

At 34 I’ve been around the block on the internet and absolutely nothing shocks me, ever.

This photo makes me physically sick. Maybe it’s because I’m a dad to a 2 year old now, but absolutely anything involving the harm of a child really plays on my mind. I hope they get what they deserve in prison.