New report into case of murdered boy pinpoints failures to intervene

Daniel Pelka died of a head injury after a campaign of abuse by his mother Magdelena Luczak and his stepfather, former soldier Mariusz Krezolek, both of whom were jailed for a minimum of 30 years for his murder following a trial last year.

An independent report by Coventry Safeguarding Children Board yesterday found delays in information being shared by health professionals, school staff and social workers along with staffing issues and insufficient training led to failures to help Daniel.

The report comes after a serious case review published by the board last year found Daniel was “invisible” at times, with numerous chances missed by agencies to help him.

The new report comes after Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson requested a more detailed analysis of why mistakes occurred.

The report, carried out by independent experts, found there were delays in recording information on social work records.

The delays were due to the challenges involved in managing the volume of information in relation to domestic violence and insufficient administrative support within social care, the report said.

The experts also said there were “unacceptable delays” in circulating the minutes of a strategy meeting that looked at a broken arm suffered by Daniel in 2011.

The report found that health visitors and Daniel’s school nurse did not have a full picture of his family’s circumstances because there were no family records within community health services.

Daniel’s school was unable to form an accurate assessment of need and risk to the pupil due to inconsistent use of its recording systems and information not being brought together in a central place, the report found.