MURDERED toddler Demi Leigh Mahon was let down 12 times by social workers, it can be revealed today.
Demi, two, was the victim of a sadistic attack by disturbed teenager Karl McCluney, who had been left alone to look after her.
But social workers had already been warned on a dozen occasions about Demi's chaotic domestic life - raised by her mother in a drugs den in Eccles.
Police issued five official warnings to the council as officers were repeatedly called to deal with incidents of violence and drug abuse at Demi's home.
Social services received a further five alerts from neighbours who reported Demi's mother Ann Marie McDonald was too drunk or high on drugs to properly care for her child.
And Demi's own grand-mother twice contacted Salford council to say that she was worried about the toddler's welfare.
Despite the dozen danger signals, Demi was not put into care and was never even made the subject of a child protection plan.
A review of the case has confirmed failings, but concluded that Demi's death 'could not have been anticipated and therefore could not have been avoided'.
Action
No member of staff will be disciplined and no-one will lose their job over the case.
Social service chiefs accepted mistakes had been made, but said that even if proper action had been taken over the 12 warnings, Demi would not have been removed from the care of her mother and her life would therefore not have been saved.
Demi was left alone with 15-year-old McCluney for 90 minutes in July last year at a flat in Liverpool Road, Eccles, while her mum went out to collect child benefit.
McCluney, who suffered from a mental disorder, apparently lost his temper with Demi because her crying was distracting him while he watched television.
He punched, kicked, and bit Demi in a sadistic attack which left her with injuries in 68 different parts of her body.
Yesterday he was convicted of her murder and will be sentenced next month.
A judge has yet to decide exactly what the minimum sentence will be but said the 'starting point' will be 12 years.
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So this poor baby was tortured and murdered and no one is to blame. The social workers had ticked all the boxes and counted all the beans. All was politically correct. Well done! In Iran, the murdered student girl's picture is being circulated as a symbol of the oppression there. Poor Demi's picture should be circulated as a symbol of life in Brown's Britain.
sounds about right for Salford council, oh and is it on Blears patch too, its all laughable including the 12 years minimum, bet you all that's what this piece of puke gets and he will out by the time he is 28.
I often wonder if there is not an orchestrated campaign of people writing to newspapers and websites in on every subject under the sun to say: typical of polically correct Gordon Brown's government. As if we were living in a fascist dictatorship wnere everything was the direct responsibility of the Great Leader. In fact Nu-Labor wanted to introduce Regional Federal government in England, as in the Federal Republic of Germany, but they dropped the idea because the English are not interested in local direct democracy; they prefer to moan about the 'government' not making society a better place. As the main opposition argues that 'society' does not exist and only believes in the free market and less social organization (i.e. government), the Conservatives have already proved that their ideology is not the answer (in fact, it is no different from Nu-Labour). As long as civil servants are not supervised by the local population things will get worse. Even introducing radical private business methods, ticking boxes, under Blair, will not improve public services if staff are left to themselves to do what they like. These social workers obviously cannot do their job properly, for whatever reason, and nobody know who is to be made accountable. This is where free-market ideas come to a full stop, and people start going wild because they don't understand why private profit and private business methods are not solving all of society's problems
We have other countries that dont have things like social services,They have family groups like we used to have in britain?.Im sorry but we are all to quick to move the responsibility to the authorities.Whatever happened to the girls family ect.Its time we clamped down on people having children and expecting others to look after them and paying for them.This sounds cold hearted but child abuse is getting worse.Its now time to change how we live as a community and stop blaming others for our failings.We need to stop this housing swapping which creates "transient tennants".You cannot create true communities when you dont know whos living next door to you from one month to another.
Even after 12 warnings she still wouldnt even be removed from her mother? so yes the authorities are to blame, they should of monitored it from first report then after 3 reports she should of been taken into care..yes the mother is to blame also for leaving her child in the care of a mentally disturbed 15 yr old...but the mother used drugs and drink all the time so what does it take to be removed from the mother?? It is unbelievable to think after 12 reports she wouldnt of been removed..no wonder children are being murdered because thats when they actually do something...WHEN IT IS TOO LATE!! something needs to be done before the death of child. I hope he gets what he deserves inside!!!!!
I notice that the leader of the Council John Merry is very quiet? yet another disaster for him and his cohorts. Its about time he led this coucnil and removed failing services such as those who have failed poor Demi. Jill Baker Director of the service should be sacked on Monday.!
Death sentence, for child killers.Or life sentence should mean life, with no priviliges whatsoever.
Lets get this right. The only people to blame for this tragic death are the lad who murdered her, and the mother who brought this poor child into the world. She was the drug user who was unfit to have the child. This is where the blame should be apportioned, not to the Social services. There is always someone looking to blame someone else, the SS being an easy target. Lets start closer to home.
I see that the old chestnut "it didn't happen in my day" excuse is being wheeled out. Let's blaim Social Services/Local Government/National Government as though these things never used to happen. What a load of old tosh. If it was not for developments which have taken place in the last 40 odd years things would have been far worse. I remember when I was at Junior School in the 50's a lad coming in with a lovely triangular shaped burn on his face. His Mum had clobbered him with a hot iron. Kids not being fed properly. Kids in rags. Of course kids did not get killed then did they. I wonder what Bradey and Hindley were doing then? Off course you could leave your front door open and be safe. Like hell they'd have the shillings out of your gas meter before you turned the corner. And of course the night repairing of church roofs is something new isn't it! We had Capital Punishment, Corporal Punishment in schools and lousy prisons. Did it put people off a life of crime? I agree there was a sense of community, but don't you get that now. It's called a gang. But we didn't have gangs then did we. I wonder what happened to Teddy Boys and razor gangs? And before we get any smart comments I was brought up in the 50's in West Gorton and lived there until 1975.
What a tragedy for this little girl. Lets hope she rests in peace.
Right, so there'll be some lessons to be learned then! Again!
What's the problem? Lessons will be learned until the next time an inadequate woman/girl has a child that the taxpayer has to fund. It seems to me that the one thing you really need a test for as in having kids you don't get. I brought my kids up not the state the taxpayer but me. The first one is usually a mistake the rest are carrer moves. The whenthese kids are of breeding age they start the bredding process all over again
this will happen again and again as long as social services have the unwritten policy that as long as the parents/careres don't do drugs in front of the child its ok.....
lessons will be learned seems to be a very familiar saying nowadays these social workers and their bosses are on tremendous wages but yet again they cannot do their jobs properley and yet again a poor child has suffered and died because of them.heads should roll over this and thre should be sackings but lets see what happens.
this is sickening and it will happen again and again and again. there's no stopping it now. social services no longer have the capacity to deal with child protection. children are not being protected. watch your children very, very closely because the safeguards put in place by the government to protect them no longer work. you will have to protect your children on your own from now on. social workers have left the service like rats leaving a sinking ship, and who can blame them? they're hated by everyone, left, right and centre. soon there will be no social workers left but this will be a good thing, because they never did anything worthwhile in the first place, right? well done to us, we've created this for ourselves, we've driven the social workers away, and now the monsters will rule. well done to us.
This lad should never know freedom again. But in this country he will. It will be said he was only young. The mother should never be allowed to have children again. But we will be told to feel for her. The social services should be scrapped. I read the comments sticking up for them. I agree they could not have seen this happening. But is it not within their powers. To remove a child from what has been described as a drugs den. We hear it all the time lessons have be learnt. Any parent/person who has charge of a minor whilst on drugs. Should be locked up & we should not feel for them.
What's the problem? Lessons will be learned until the next time an inadequate woman/girl has a child that the taxpayer has to fund. It seems to me that the one thing you really need a test for as in having kids you don't get. I brought my kids up not the state the taxpayer but me. The first one is usually a mistake the rest are carrer moves. The whenthese kids are of breeding age they start the bredding process all over again thaitanium, Parents not the state are to looked at here. Tragic.
Well, it DOES sound as though her mother was not fit to care for her... and perhaps the social services agencies should have done more... But it was NOT her mother who killed her, and unless she could somehow have anticipated the savage, inhuman attack that befell her poor little daughter, she's not really to blame, and neither are the social services. This article misses the point - too eager to find SOME way to blame 'the government' for the failings of individual human beings. (Wouldn't it be nice if this were NOT the fault of the young monster who did this horrible thing, but merely a governmental failing? What rubbish...)
There are many children living in drug dens and worse. If every child at this level was removed into the care of Social Services. There would not be enough places for them, enough staff to cope with them, enough tax payers’ money to pay for them. Why? Because this is part of everyday British Society, part of Brown’s Broken Britain.
Your child protective services are horrible. He should die in prison, and when other prisoners find out what he did, there will be hell to pay. He will never make it! Thank god!!
Family members calling social services with concerns about a child should bring on full investigation without any other reasons.It cant be easy for them to risk their offspring being prosecuted or the child being taken into care.It sounds like they work on the principle that if a family member reports neglect or abuse theres no need to bother as someone cares and will rescue the child.What does warrent immidiate intervention?The one time I did see a social worker in action was where a middleclass single mother was struggling finacially and they fixed her up with free child care.End of problem.I suspect they keep themselves busy with cases like this.
And,can I add.She was still a poor parent,in fact worse as she left nurturing,boring buisness to the childminder
Social services are paid vast amounts of money by taxpayers to protect children, after 12 warnings and still the child was let down, there needs to be some accountability just like the public outcry with Baby P, the head of social services and a few others there were quite rightly sacked.
Just a thought! Was it social services that originally banned the cane and any other form of corporal discipline in schools or home, I always thought it was but I might have been wrong. Was it them who also said that it was wrong to tell a naughty child that they were being naughty but to use terms like being "none constructive" If it was, then the monster they've created is well a truely amongst us now and in some cases, the second generation of the monster.
Where was the father in all this? R.I.P Demi No this is not the Governments Fault, and for the misinformed Eccles is not Hazel Blears patch but so what don't let the facts get in the way.