This made me cry.

[Aggers]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23523076

I'm not ashamed to say that this news on the BBC this evening overwhelmed me and brought tears to my eyes.

How can anyone be so cruel to a sweet young boy like this?

And what a pity the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

[Kaz]

Me too Aggers, child cruelty makes me feel physically ill

Poor little mite xx

[JoM]

Absolutely heartbreaking isn't it Poor little lad, you simply can't understand how a parent can be this evil and make their child suffer so much.

[Workingman]

What's the betting that the serious case review by Coventry's Safeguarding Children Board comes up with "lessons to be learnt" - again?

Bastards!

[JoM]

What's the betting that the serious case review by Coventry's Safeguarding Children Board comes up with "lessons to be learnt" - again?

Bastards!

It's a given isn't it.
And it's also a given that sometime in the future, after those lessons should've been learnt, we'll have another heartbreaking thread on the same subject.

[Diflower]

It's one that's particularly got to me too...I think because it wasn't a single, angry attack. Poor little boy, so very underweight, so bruised, so scared

[Workingman]

You are the headmaster or headmistress, usually mistress, of a primary school. In comes a pupil with bruises and black eyes and rapid weight loss. The parents tell you it is due to a rare genetic disorder: What do you do?

Do you:
a. Believe them and feel sorry for all concerned
b. Ask for proof
c. Report the case anyway, and pass it on, because the family and boy might need help
d. Do nothing and carry on

You are a doctor, nurse, or any staff in A&E, and a young boy is brought in with his arm broken "clean in half". You are told he has a rare genetic disorder: What do you do

Do you:
a. Carry out tests to see if that is the case
b. Believe them and feel sorry for all concerned
c. Ask for proof
d. Report the case anyway, and pass it on, because the family and boy might need help
e. Do nothing and carry on

It is time these people became more questioning.

[Rodo]

Good points there WM. It's a difficult one, but I do know that, as a teacher, if I had seen a young lad constantly scrabbling in rubbish bins for food I would have had enough nosiness to look into things a bit deeper and not just accept what his mother said. I knew then in the job that parents could be very good liars where their children were concerned.

It was heartbreaking yes. I know I am always quoting this but again it's "Man's inhumanity to man".

[Workingman]

Rodo, I am certain that you would have asked serious questions, but it appears that to "Do nothing and carry on" is the 'de facto' option for so many in authority.

PC, and the overzealous application of certain policies by some in Social Services, has created this abomination. Nobody should be criticised, nobody should be offended, everyone has to be treated as though they are caring and responsible - and believed to be so.

Then things go wrong.......

[TheOstrich]

Before we all go castigating the authorities for "not taking sufficient action", please don't forget what happens when the Social Services take pre-emptive action, entirely off their own recognizance.

We have the South Ronaldsay (1991), Rochdale (1990) and Cleveland (1987) scandals, to name but three.

If you want the Government authorities to be more "proactive", just be careful what you wish for ......

In cases like the one today, there is always media hand-wringing and blame dolloped out on the professionals, and not necessarily fairly. Let us not forget that the sole perpetrators were the mother and step-father in this instance, and the "parents" or guardians in all the other recent high-profile instances like the Climbie and Williams abuse cases.

I think sometimes we spend too much time dancing round the periphery and don't focus enough on the actual culprits. Which is why whole life imprisonment / death penalty should be the order of the day, not interminable public enquiries.

Just my 2c worth .....