Wednesday 1 July 2009

Findings due in child death probes

http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/news/archive/2009/june/25/14.htm

A local authority's child protection system is due to come under fresh scrutiny.
Doncaster Children Safeguarding Board is publishing the findings of the serious case reviews into the deaths of Amy Howson and Alfie Goddard, who were both known to the town's social services department.
The deaths placed the local authority under the national spotlight after it emerged that seven children had died while under the care of Doncaster Council's children's services department since 2004.
Sixteen-month-old Amy died in December 2007 after her spine was snapped in two. Her father, James Howson, 25, from Nelson Road, Doncaster, was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison.
The toddler was malnourished and dehydrated and had been punched and slapped on numerous occasions, suffering fractures to her arms, legs and ribs.
Alfie, from the Toll Bar area of Doncaster, was just three months old when he died at Sheffield Children's Hospital in May 2008.
A post-mortem examination showed he had suffered a fatal head injury two days earlier. His father, Craig Goddard, 24, squeezed, shook and then threw him to the floor after he lost his temper when he refused to stop crying. Goddard had been drinking and had smoked several cannabis joints.

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