Exclusive: Edlington attacks brought back memories of Bulger savagery

WHEN Michael Gove first heard of the vicious attacks on two boys in the South Yorkshire village of Edlington, he struggled to read the news stories or watch the footage on television.

It took him back to the time he was working as a journalist when Jamie Bulger was murdered in Liverpool and brought back the horrific memories of that savage attack.

"I literally couldn't, when the case first emerged, read the coverage and couldn't watch the news," he says. "It was just impossible and I sort of steeled myself a day later to read the newspaper coverage and I couldn't believe it."

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When he read interviews with the victims' families last weekend it was "a struggle to get to the end", he says. His feelings are not just those of a man who may become Children's Secretary in barely four months' time – they are also the emotions of a father of two young children.

"I felt for those children and their fear of what might happen when the two children responsible for their fate get out," he said. "I just thought their suffering is at the heart of this. I couldn't imagine, literally could not imagine, if such a thing happened to my child. It's just so wrenching reading about the dad of one of them who had to wait at a distance while they were waiting to see whether or not his son was properly alive.

"It was incredibly moving. But at the same time, the one thing it reinforced in my mind was that nothing was done to deal with this two boys, a string of errors had occurred, if only the right steps had been taken we wouldn't be in this position."

In the wake of the sentencing of the two offenders earlier this month – they were both told they will serve a minimum five years behind bars – a raft of failings by the authorities was revealed along with the damning conclusion the attack could have been prevented. Concerns have prompted the Audit Commission to launch an inspection of Doncaster Council.

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But Mr Gove is leading protests about the full serious case review into the brothers' involvement with the authority remaining secret.

The Government maintains releasing such reports in full would risk identifying vulnerable children and put in jeopardy the future co-operation of professionals, but Mr Gove insists a suitably anonymised version could be published.

His argument was boosted this week by the verdict of the deputy children's commissioner that "the quality of the executive summary of the SCR of the two brothers in Doncaster certainly does not provide adequate detail to instill confidence in those unable to access the full review that the right lessons will be learnt".

Mr Gove, a close ally of Tory leader David Cameron, says it is "inexplicable" that Children's Secretary Ed Balls still defends the "totally inadequate" summary.

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"Anyone who just looks at that – you've got an 11 page document, the first page is the cover, four pages of processology, several pages of recommendations which it's impossible to make head or tail of if you're an ordinary person like me, there are two and a half pages that tell you the chronology that went on."

This is not just a knee-jerk campaign from Mr Gove, who insists it is right not to name the brothers guilty of the horrific attacks.

He was finally allowed to see the full serious case review into the death of Baby Peter in Haringey and is adamant it could safely be made public.

"I know that if we'd published the full serious case review it would be possible to learn lessons about how to improve social work, how to improve police investigation of child abuse cases, how to improve the process by which we take children into care, how to improve how local authority lawyers work, and how to improve the NHS all so we protect children better," he says.

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"But those lessons aren't being learnt because the document isn't being published."

He "respects" the arguments of people like the NSPCC who oppose full publication on the grounds it could reveal children's identities, but insists "having read the Baby Peter serious case review I am convinced that that can be done."

He also says the child protection system is "inadequate".

In a sign major changes could be on the way if the Tories are elected, he says we need a "whole new look" at child protection and urges a national debate on the issue. "We need to be more assertive in challenging families over the environment in which children are brought up," he says.