‘Failings’ over death of boy, 3, battered in bedroom

The final report, published yesterday, said there had been “a loss of contact with agencies, hindering effective inter-agency communication” according to Birmingham Children’s Safeguarding Board (BCSB).

Peter Cawser, formerly of Albert Village, Swadlincote, on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years, after admitting murdering his girlfriend’s son Dylan Crean by battering him to death.

The report, published on behalf of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards of Derbyshire; Leicestershire and Rutland; Birmingham and Nottingham City, said the “transient lifestyle” of the boy’s mother – moving between “numerous addresses” in Birmingham – had led to a loss of contact with probation and mental health services.

The children’s social care team in Birmingham did not know Dylan and his mother had moved to Derbyshire and later Leicestershire, where they had moved in with Cawser.

The case review uncovered “a missed opportunity” by the team to assess Dylan’s needs after he was taken to hospital with a dog bite seven months before he was murdered.

Cawser, whose own family had warned of his “volatile behaviour”, was also referred to a community psychiatric nurse whom he was quoted as telling in the report that he had “a Jekyll and Hyde character – fine one moment and agitated the next”.

The nurse gave him contact details for an anger management group, but otherwise referred him back to his own GP, who expressed concern at this conclusion.

Cawser inflicted more than 70 injuries on Dylan in a sustained and brutal attack which took place in the child’s bedroom in August, 2011.

Sentencing him at Leicester Crown Court in September 2012, Judge Michael Pert QC told Cawser that Dylan’s response of “okay” to his request telling him not be naughty or make a mess was no defence.