New Baby P photos published
Photos showing Baby P shortly before his death and face smeared with chocolate emerge
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Saturday, 15, Nov 2008 08:16
Photographs showing Baby P shortly before his death have emerged after newspapers won a legal battle against a ban on their publication.
The pictures, published today in the Daily Mail, show the 17-month-old boy with chocolate smeared over his face to hide bruises and injuries inflicted by his mother and two other men.
Baby P died in August 2007 after sustaining up to 50 injuries at the hands of his mother, his stepfather – both of who like the infant cannot be identified – and lodger Jason Owen.
Both men were convicted or causing or allowing the baby's death this week, a charge his mother has already pleaded guilty to. They are all due to be sentenced on December 15th.
The case has attracted widespread condemnation of the authorities in Haringey after it emerged more than 60 visits by social and health workers, as well as police, had been made to Baby P's home.
The government has pledged an independent inquiry, while an internal report has already blamed poor legal advice for not taking the boy into care a week before his death.
In 2000 Haringey received similarly criticism when eight-year-old Victoria Climbie was murdered by her great-aunt and partner.
But on Saturday almost 70 headteachers in Haringey wrote an open letter in support of embattled director of children and young people's services, Sharon Shoesmith.
They said that if Ms Shoesmith resigned the borough would lose one of its "most effective, determined and committed champions".
Baby P's death has already sparked angry exchanges in the House of Commons after Gordon Brown accused David Cameron of politicising the issue.
Claims that a whistleblower alerted ministers of systemic failings in Haringey's child protection services six months before Baby P died have added to the controversy.
On Friday Mr Cameron said the tragic case had seen Baby P fall through the cracks of the bureaucratic system.
"If letters are sent with both Haringey and children in the same sentence, then that should have been a real wake up call," he said.
"It seems that what may have happened is that bureaucratic changes in how inspections are carried out didn't help. And it also seems that everyone is saying that procedures were followed rather than actually asking who was responsible and why didn't they act."
The photos published in the Mail today show a shaven-headed Baby P with sunken eyes and hollow cheeks.
Photos taken six months previously show him with a full head of light blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
Both sets of photos have only come to light after newspapers successfully argued that their publication was in the public interest as it gave the tragedy a human face.
On Friday his natural father spoke publicly for the first time since Baby P's death.
"The verdicts will help to bring closure for what has been a very traumatic time for me, his family and all those who knew or were close to him," the unnamed man said.
"I loved him deeply.
"Those who systematically tortured P and killed him kept it a secret – not just form me but from all the people who visited the house."
On Saturday, the Guardian warned that four out of five children killed or injured as a result of abuse or neglect were being missed by the child protection register.
Unpublished government-commissioned research obtained by the paper revealed a "widespread pattern of missed opportunities".