Murdered by mother: social workers dropped 'torture' case after one visit

[Honey]

Murdered by mother: social workers dropped 'torture' case after one visit | the Daily Mail

Leticia died from complications caused by multiple injuries

Leticia's body was covered with more than 100 injuries



Social workers have been criticised for failing to save a four-year-old girl who was tortured and murdered by her mother and her boyfriend.



Worried neighbours alerted social services about Leticia Wright but an investigation was dropped after just one visit.

Over the next four weeks Leticia was subjected to appalling abuse. She was burned, bitten, punched and kicked.

The injuries were discovered when paramedics called to the house in Huddersfield by mother Sharon Wright found Leticia naked and lifeless.

Yesterday Wright and drug addict Peter McKenzie-Seaton were convicted of murder at Bradford Crown Court and jailed for a minimum of 23 years.

A neighbour who called in social services, Diane Harrison, said: "If they had acted she would probably be alive today."

Paul Johnson, of Kirklees Council. said an independent review concluded Leticia's death "could not have been foreseen". Scroll down for more ...
Guilty: Sharon Wright and Peter McKenzie-Seaton


She cut a forlorn figure, standing at all times of day by her bedroom window still dressed in her pyjamas.

While other children were at school, Leticia Wright was effectively a prisoner in her home.

Occasionally she would smile and return the wave of a neighbour but usually she stared ahead as if in a trance.

Two neighbours phoned social services to report their concerns. The intervention should have proved a lifeline but tragically it did not.

During the afternoon of October 13 last year two social workers turned up at the two-bedroom council house in Almondbury Bank, Huddersfield, where Leticia lived with her mother Sharon, 23, and boyfriend Peter McKenzie-Seaton.

But Seaton, 22, hid in the bathroom and the social workers never knew he was living there.

Seaton, who had convictions for violence, was on the run from police after breaching the terms of a community order for possession of an offensive weapon and was suspected of assaulting a nine-month-old baby three years earlier.

He was also prone to violent rages when he ran out of skunk cannabis.

During their hour-long visit, Nicola Stephenson and Lynn Blackie, from Kirklees Council's child protection unit, went upstairs and found Leticia, in a dressing gown and underwear, lying on a bed with no sheets. They noticed she had hardly any toys.

But after a chat the social workers left reassured. Leticia appeared to "respond affectionately" to her mother, seemed healthy and Wright promised to register her with a doctor and nursery school.

Next Monday social workers checked that Wright was keeping her promise. Although Leticia was never registered with a doctor, she went to school for the rest of the week.

On October 27 a health visitor called at the house and "all appeared well". During that week Wright received a letter from social services notifying her they had closed the file on Leticia after one visit and their work was over.

With the pressure off, Leticia was forced back to her bedroom vigil and never returned to school.

Over the next three weeks the helpless child was subjected to appalling brutality behind the closed doors of her home.

When the school rang on November 13, to ask about Leticia's absence, Wright claimed she had been ill and would return the following day.

Leticia was last seen alive by a neighbour at the bedroom window on Thursday November 16. Paramedics were called to the house 48 hours later, on Saturday night, to find Leticia naked and lifeless.

Paediatrician Dr Kate Ward said Leticia had at least 100 injuries, from bruising on her scalp to a burn on the tip of her toe.

She died from head and internal injuries to her abdomen inflicted one or two days earlier. But the array of burns, scratches, bruises, cuts, bite marks and sores indicated abuse over weeks.

She had been branded with a cigarette lighter and burnt on her leg and foot with cigarettes, kicked and punched over her head and body, battered with a blunt instrument, had clumps of hair pulled out and bitten by Seaton on the arm.

A dent on the landing wall was probably caused by her head being smashed against it.

The most chilling discovery was a pair of fur-lined handcuffs stained with Leticia's blood. Her blood was also found on floors and walls around the house.

Summing up the prosecution case, Nicholas Campbell QC, said: "What happened to Leticia was not the result of a sudden loss of control, rather an assault that was sustained, deliberate and brutal."

Certainly Seaton had a violent past. He started smoking cannabis at 12 and was jobless but spent up to £140 a week on the potent form of cannabis called skunk.

Originally from Northallerton, he moved around northern England having relationships with a string of women. He had convictions for assault and had regularly beaten up a former girlfriend.

Seaton met Wright when they were living with partners in the same street in Hartlepool and they ran off together, ending up in Huddersfield last summer.
Wright was also jobless, on benefits and only sporadically in contact with Leticia's father, Zaheer Hussain. Brought up in Dewsbury, she left home at 16 to live in a hostel and became pregnant at 17.

Although she had no previous convictions, witnesses described how Wright was cruel and violent towards Leticia, regularly hitting or smacking her hard.

The jury was not told that two months before her death Leticia told two aunts that Seaton was hitting her.
She told one: "I don't like that boy Peter, that boy Peter comes to my bedroom and smacks me." She also told them: "I don't like mummy."
With one or both of them clearly responsible for the little girl's death, Wright and Seaton blamed each other in court.

Wright said problems getting supplies of cannabis in the final weeks of Leticia's life made Seaton more violent. "It would send him on a rage, he would lose his temper. He would start hitting Leticia, smacking her and punching her."
Seaton claimed he told Wright off for mistreating Leticia and could not explain the injuries. He said he had little to do with her care.
Yesterday Detective Superintendent Paul Taylor, who led the police inquiry, said: "The level of cruelty that Leticia was subjected to beggars belief. The injuries were so severe that she must have been in unimaginable pain during the final few days of her life."

[McJag]

Why are these two EVER getting out? Why? Poor precious child.

[celeb_2006]

Sad

[lisalucy69]

Disgusting. Maybe the social workers who were on this case, but decided everything was fine, should be held accountable as well. Maybe if they would've investigated further and made a decent attempt to investigate the allegations, that little girl would be alive today. If the social workers were held accountable in cases like this, maybe they'd be more thorough and do what their paid to do...protect children.

[Voodoo Child]

Sad. What a beautiful little girl.

[pacific breeze]

Disgusting. Maybe the social workers who were on this case, but decided everything was fine, should be held accountable as well. Maybe if they would've investigated further and made a decent attempt to investigate the allegations, that little girl would be alive today. If the social workers were held accountable in cases like this, maybe they'd be more thorough and do what their paid to do...protect children.

Social workers should/could always do more but most of them have literally hundreds of cases and everybody from taxpayers to politicians keeps cutting funding to kids because after all, they don't vote. That is the REAL reason kids keep falling through the cracks. I have a friend who is a social worker and the average worker lasts less than two years because of burn out and stress. Where I live, cuts to social services have been so deep and so constant -- up to 8 changes in government ministers in 6 years, all with different ideas and shrinking budgets -- that they are literally begging social workers to come to Canada from England. That's how bad it is and as always, the most vulnerable in society pay the price.

[Reptillycus]

I agree with Pacific Breeze. It's easy to blame the social workers, or the system, but it was the mother and her boyfriend that killed her. When I see pictures of these children, it just makes me cry, literally, that people can be so screwed up. I hope they are punished and never are around children again. There better be a special place in Hell for these people...

[Grimmlok]

aw.

even though i generally dont like kids, she looked like a sweet girl.

dangit even im getting misty.

shoot the parents.

[Chilly Willy]

No, torture them.

[greysfang]

I wouldn't waste a bullet on them, electrocute their asses.

[Honey]

aw.

even though i generally dont like kids, she looked like a sweet girl.

dangit even im getting misty.

shoot the parents.

Aww Grimm.

Me too, hurting kids is evil.

[VenusInFauxFurs]

Look at the picture of the mum's boyfriend. The face says it all, he's sorry he got caught. May the pair of them never see the light of day. Sick fucks. That poor, poor little girl. My heart breaks.

[gardenofeve]

Jesus, just fucking horrible. Enough to bring a few tears to my eyes. I have no pity for those two, I can't even think of anything horrible enough for them.

Unfortunately social workers are usually bound by laws and procedures. I couldn't go in there and go on a gut feeling even if I wanted to, there has to be evidence that is well documented, especially if a social worker were to get a court order to take the child away. I can't really comment on whether these guys did their jobs well, but it usually isn't as straightforward as going in, not liking the parent/s and taking the kid away, although sometimes I wished it were.

[blissfullyunaware]

Assholes! It never fails to horrify/anger me anytime an adult beats up/kills an innocent little child. I hope these 2 are miserable for the rest of their days.

[Aella]

Fuck. There doesn't seem to be a sentence harsh enough for these people-and even if there were, it wouldn't bring that little girl back.