Calls for full report on 'torture attack' boys

Rob Waugh

THE Tory hierarchy last night backed calls by senior Doncaster councillors for the full publication of a report which details a raft of child care failures leading up to a brutal attack by two young brothers in Edlington.

Garth Oxby, leader of the Independent Alliance, and Joe Blackham, leader of the Labour group, have written to Tim Leader, acting managing director of the authority, to demand the serious case review on the background to the youngsters’ extreme violence is made available in full, rather than the executive summary due on Friday.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As reported in yesterday’s Yorkshire Post, the report is said to list 31 missed opportunities by different agencies to intervene in the brothers’ family over a period of 14 years. It has already been leaked to the BBC. The council last night revealed it had spent 30,000 on an unsuccessful legal battle for an injunction to block the BBC’s publication.

Shadow Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said: “The serious case review should be published in full so we can see, warts and all, exactly what went wrong and we can give some reassurance to people that mistakes are being learned from.”

A court hearing is due to begin today. The two brothers, aged nine and 10, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent following a vicious assault on two boys aged 10 and 11 last April.

Comment: Page 12.