The Baby P cover-up uncovered (From Haringey Independent)

The Baby P cover-up uncovered

12:52pm Thursday 13th November 2008 in

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Although we cannot name him, we must not forget Baby P was a normal, bouncy little boy with beautiful blond curls before his abuse started.

He would run around the park laughing and playing with friends before he returned home to be left for hours on end in his cot with a dirty nappy, fearful of being hit by those who should love him the most.

Over the past few days, as the blood-hounds have been baying at Haringey Council's doors, the awful life this little child endured in his family home has been somewhat overlooked.

The run-down house in Tottenham stank of urine and pornography lined the walls and floors.

The mother admitted in court to not getting out of bed until the afternoon, leaving Baby P alone in his cot all morning or abandoning him to go and smoke a cigarette.

She lied to the police about her boyfriend, Jason Owen and his 15-year-old girlfriend living in the house, despite visible signs of the sofa being turned into a makeshift bed every night.

There is no escaping the fact that police and social workers saw all this. They may not have seen the fist deliver the punch, but they saw these ugly surroundings and the horrible aftermath on the child's body.

When forensic officers searched the toddler's room they found blood-splatters on the bedroom walls, carpet and cot. The clothes in his wardrobe were covered in blood stains as you can see from our photos.

So the question which has been asked and which will continue to be asked until an answer is given, is why was this child left in that house? Why did the social workers, who were supposed to have received training to spot signs of abuse and lying parents, not take action?

These questions were not answered by the director of children's services at Haringey Council. In a bare-faced press interview she flatly refused to apologise to the boy's father, an innocent bystander in this, and she declared "good procedures" were followed. And she is is not the first officer to try and cover up her staff's errors.

What has remained untold is the extent to which the council went to cover this up from the very beginning.

In the first days of the trial, Haringey's costly barrister tried to prevent this story ever being told. Perhaps realising this was another Victoria Climbie case, the council argued they should not be named in the trial.

It is almost unbelievable they thought it would be possible to hide the name of the borough where this happened and devolve themselves of public scrutiny and responsibility. Thankfully the judge dismissed this argument.

But a month into the trial, Haringey lawyers hampered proceedings yet again. The trial had to be postponed for a day because the council had not produced vital documents to the judge or the lawyers involved. Hours were wasted arguing why it should not release this evidence from its sticky paws into the public domain. Again it lost.

And it will lose again here. This cannot be the second time this happens in Haringey (the first time being the killing of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie in 2000) and nobody pay the price.

The perpetrators may be behind bars but there is obviously no-one in the borough capable of preventing this happening again. They should not be able to defend or excuse their behaviour.

Let us not forget the horrible life of Baby P rather let us use it to ensure justice is finally done for him. Victoria's death should not have been for nothing.