Mother warned of ‘dangers of too many children’

Among the family snaps are pictures of a happy and healthy looking Amanda Hutton surrounded by her smiling children, including newborn baby Hamzah.

Mr Jackson was once proud to call himself Amanda Hutton’s stepfather and he and his wife Ann – Hutton’s mother – would spend a great deal of time with the eldest two boys.

Back then, Amanda Hutton was a dedicated and caring mother, he recalls.

“She was a good mother in her twenties. She had a rebellious streak as a teenager but as soon as she became a mother things began to change and she stopped going out clubbing.

“She became a typical mother – the children came first. If anything happened to them, like a fall, or something, she would be distraught. She was a properly dedicated mother.”

Mr Jackson’s old photographs capture a visit by his step-daughter, newborn Hamzah and his siblings to his house in East Yorkshire in 2005.

But within month’s of that family day out Amanda Hutton’s life was turned upside down with the death of her mother, who passed away on Christmas Eve 2005 following a battle with breast cancer.

Mr Jackson believes losing her mother set Amanda on a downward spiral.

“She was reliant on her mother for help and to solve problems she had. Amanda had multiple children and very few friends. She (Ann) was her shoulder to cry on and to give her advice. I don’t believe she was getting much support from Aftab (her partner and father of their eight children).

“Before Ann died, mother and daughter would be on the phone constantly. When we lived in Bradford the wife used to pop round to Amanda’s two or three times a week.

“When she died, I fetched Amanda over here. She was absolutely distraught and upset. Ann and Amanda were very, very close.”

Mr Jackson, a retired postal worker, believes the combination of having eight children, losing her mother and having an abusive partner proved overwhelming.

He believes his wife had 
spoken to her daughter about the dangers of having too many children.

“The thing about Amanda was that she had all these children – they are very demanding. The more children you have the more time you need to spend with them. And if you are a lady without a gentleman, you are doing it all yourself and it can get on top of you.

“When grandma died, it was a very traumatic experience and it set Amanda on a downward spiral.

“When Amanda had six children her mother would ask how many was she going for. 
Her mother told her to be careful – when the seventh arrived 
Ann said she was getting concerned because she had seven children and she was still under 40.”

Mr Jackson says none of these sad circumstances in Amanda’s background can in any way excuse what happened to Hamzah.

“I have no sympathy for her whatsoever because she was a grown-up woman and intelligent. She should have been saying to people who were there to help – social services, other people – ‘I’m in a hell of a state, I’m drinking like a fish and I need help’ but she would not go to anybody and say so. To me that would have been an excellent opportunity for social workers to sit down with her.”

Mr Jackson’s last visit to his stepdaughter at the family home in Heaton, Bradford was on Christmas Day 2009. He called with a card and present for her.

Upstairs, unbeknown to him, Hamzah’s decomposing body lay in a travel cot. The four-year-old had died ten days earlier and it was another 21 months before police made the grim discovery of his remains. His tiny arm was still curled around his favourite Igglepiggle toy.

Mr Jackson recalls that his step-daughter did not look well that day; her hair was matted and she had put on a lot of weight, he recalls.

The pair chatted for around an hour and then he left. Apart from a cluttered kitchen, he does not remember anything out of the ordinary.

Now that the trial is over and Hutton is in jail, Mr Jackson believes “heads should roll” as a result of Hamzah’s death – but he is not expecting this to happen.

“I think senior executives within child welfare should be down the road. Heads should have rolled months ago.

“In a month or a year another child will die and we will have all this again. Social services and child welfare are failing. We have had Baby P and other cases – it is an epidemic.”

He believes child welfare professionals and Hamzah’s father could have done more to help Amanda and the children.

“They were severely let down by those who are supposed to help.”