Life-of-squalor baby died after social workers failed to heed danger alerts

Martin Slack

SOCIAL workers twice failed to take action to save a baby’s life, despite police and colleagues from another council warning them he was in danger, an inquest heard.

Seven-month-old Alex Barker was not fed properly by his parents, and they only got medical help when he was found not breathing in a carrycot with a jumper over his face.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The baby died three days after he was admitted to Sheffield Children’s Hospital, and a hearing in the city was told he had been living in filthy and chaotic conditions.

It emerged the baby’s father, Andrew Barker, had previously been investigated by police and social workers in West Yorkshire who had passed on their concerns. Barker, 27, and the baby’s mother, Bethany Goldthorpe, 23, lived with Alex and their two-year-old daughter in Winn Gardens in the Middlewood area of Sheffield.

Coroner Chris Dorries heard the children lived surrounded by rubbish, soiled nappies and dog excrement, but social workers did nothing to help them.

After his death Alex was found to have suffered a string of “non-accidental” injuries, including crushed and fractured ribs and a broken arm caused by twisting.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Dorries heard the authorities in Sheffield had been contacted by those in West Yorkshire about accusations over Barker injuring a son he had by another woman.

Carol Shaw from Kirklees Council told the hearing: “Social workers at that time felt that on balance Mr Barker was likely to have been the perpetrator of those injuries.”

However, this was ignored by Sheffield Council social workers who visited the family, and two investigations were closed when it was that decided nothing was wrong.

While the baby was not properly fed, community grants and benefits had been spent on luxuries like a hydraulic leather bed, a car and an Xbox games system.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The couple did not even have a steriliser for Alex’s bottles and the hearing was told a witness told the police that the couple were neglectful and did not feed the baby.

Andrew Barker told the inquest he had been “prop feeding” the baby – resting a bottle of baby milk on the child’s chest on

Continued on Page 6.