Not many things bring a tear to my eye, but this does

[sasguru]

There must have been more people who knew what was going on.

Looks like the evidence was there for all to see but was ignored.

[Bunk]

teachers saw Daniel become "thinner and thinner in front of their eyes" and said his uniform was "hanging off him".

And what did they do? They should be dealt with severely too.

[MaryPoppins]

I think if you have a boy around that age, as I do, the full horror of it gets you deeply.

Yes. I feel ignorant in doing so, but I keep having to turn off the radio. I can't bear to hear the details of what the poor little boy went through.

I was going to comment on the 'fairness' of your other comment about it being ignored, but don't know enough about the case really.

[Paddy]

Obviously it is more heart breaking because this case is more near to home however, the press turns a blind eye to the similar plight of 600,000 to 800,000war orphans in Iraq courtesy of tax dodger war criminal Tony Blair.

[jmo21]

I think if you have a boy around that age, as I do, the full horror of it gets you deeply.

Yep.

I've certainly become more affected by stories like this since my kids were born.

[proggy]

They should lock up the social workers and other "professionals" who are PAID to stop this!.

[d000hg]

The Polish community is very close knit and they do not report things about their fellow nationals to authorities, they keep thing very much inside their own community. There must have been more people who knew what was going on.

Obviously it is more heart breaking because this case is more near to home however, the press turns a blind eye to the similar plight of 600,000 to 800,000war orphans in Iraq courtesy of tax dodger war criminal Tony Blair.

Really, you're seeing this as a chance to bitch about Tony Blair?

And what did they do? They should be dealt with severely too.

Read the story again, it's pretty clear services were aware of problems of some sort. The parents told the teachers the kid was not allowed to eat school food and disobeying is a ticket to being sued... all the school can do is pass on their concerns to people up the chain and wait for them to intervene, not disobey the parent's wishes without permission to do so.

[vetran]

all the school can do is pass on their concerns to people up the chain and wait for them to intervene, not disobey the parent's wishes without permission to do so.

This does seem to be the stumbling block a lot of the time.

[d000hg]

This does seem to be the stumbling block a lot of the time.

I'm not sure who you would improve this state of affairs (assuming you thought it should be improved). If a school decides the system isn't stepping in what would they do, 'kidnap' the child? Feed them against the parents' wishes? This sounds good in theory on the "get the kids away from the abusive parents" score but not only will teachers sometimes get the wrong end of the stick, even with the best intentions, but you will then open it up to teachers harming children.

I don't think there is a solution really. Sure, social services appear to miss a lot of cases or admit there are problems but not do enough about it, but taking someone's kid away is really a massive step to take. Doing so because you only suspect abuse is a very difficult call - I know someone who as not had access to her kids for a year+ because after a very messy divorce the husband accused her of abusing them.

[Ticktock]

Sure, social services appear to miss a lot of cases or admit there are problems

A lot of cases? We hear about cases like this maybe twice a year recently.
Whilst it's terrible, this is not a huge number in either absolute terms, or in relation to the number of cases they must have to investigate.