Council and police learn after baby probe concerns

Humberside Police and East Riding Council insist they have learned from errors in the case of Child F – a 10-month-old baby who suffered life-threatening injuries at the hands of 25-year-old Adam Hewitt.

Hewitt, jailed last week for five years, had attacked a 13-month child in April 2007, causing a complex skull fracture, but police closed the investigation after just 10 days. The following year, a judge said Hewitt could have been responsible for the injuries to the 13-month-old child. Police were told but did not reopen the case.

Bron Sanders, chair of the East Riding Safeguarding Childrens Board, said the opportunity to expose the risk Hewitt posed to children was missed.

Two senior social workers were sacked shortly after the second child was injured in 2009. However police found “no case to answer” over the officers who faced a misconduct inquiry.

Assistant chief constable Alan Leaver admitted closing the investigation in 2007 and not revisiting it the following year following the court proceedings were “mistakes”. They had since increased the amount of supervision in investigations, with sergeants involved earlier and inspectors tasked with reviewing them before they were closed.

He said: “The first investigation was frankly closed too quickly. We hadn’t given ourselves sufficient opportunity in 10 days to determine whether the injuries to the baby were accidental or not. I am not saying a longer investigation would have produced sufficient evidence because these cases are extremely difficult and complicated, but we didn’t give ourselves the opportunity.”

The internal investigation concluded there was no case to answer over the officers, “rather processes and systems were not as robust as they should have been and now are”.

Seven social worker posts were created after Child F was injured. Director of children, family and adult services Alison Michalska said managers had spoken and written to the mother to say Hewitt was one of a number who could have hurt her child.

She said: “What managers failed to do was actually assure themselves that Mum absolutely understood the implications and that Hewitt shouldn’t have remained living in the family.”

Asked about public confidence, Mrs Sanders added: “Every child protection case is different. In this case every agency was open to changing their practice and making improvements and have done so. I think people have been honest and put their hands up to things that weren’t right and put those things right.”