Social services admit errors on tragic tot
A catalogue of errors by social services allowed tragic tot Deraye Lewis to be brutally beaten to death by his mum's boyfriend, the Citizen can reveal.
This week, as evil Nicholas Halling began a life sentence for murder, the sad history of his three-year-old victim – and the officials who let him down – began to unfold.
It has now been confirmed that social workers in neighbouring Bedfordshire were tipped off that Halling was abusing the
little mixed-race boy some six months
before the murder.
Mistake number one came when they failed to pick up the signs of Halling's racist attacks, which included stubbing out cigarettes on the little boy's body and calling him racist names.
Instead they believed the cover-up stories from terrified mum Donna, even when,
according to sources, she presented herself "black and blue" with bruises from Halling's attacks on her.
Three months before Deraye's death, Donna finally admitted Halling was beating her and fled to safety in Milton Keynes.
But mistake number two came when Bedfordshire social services omitted to pass the information on to Milton Keynes social services, though they stated clearly on her emergency housing application that she was 'fleeing domestic violence'.
This led to mistake number three – when Milton Keynes housing department failed to inform their own colleagues in
social services they had moved a vulnerable mum and child into a house in Bletchley's Osborne Street.
Thus when scared and lonely 21-year-old Donna rekindled the relationship with her bullying, older boyfriend, not one
official was there to notice.
Not surprisingly, the violence continued – worse than ever. On New Year's Eve 2005, just hours before little Deraye's death, Donna was so scared that she called the police out to her home.
But, intimidated by Halling, she withdrew her complaint that she had been assaulted.
Officers noticed little Deraye had been crying but could see no 'obvious' injuries.
Unaware of the previous history, they took no action and left.
Deraye spent the rest of the day complaining of stomach ache and being sick and neighbours heard Halling shout: "That f........g baby is spoiling my life. We can't do anything without him spoiling things."
Hours later, on New Year's Day morning, Donna woke up to find the son she loved lying dead in bed beside her.
More than 70 injuries were found on his tiny body. His bowel had been ruptured, his eardrum perforated, the surface of his brain bruised and his skin burned with cigarettes.
It was 'abundantly clear', according to the judge who last week sentenced Halling, that the child had been treated with 'contempt, hostility and violence' over a period of at least a year.
"You were intolerant, abusive, domineering and you hit him many times, if not
habitually, on the head.
"You called him names that were very
offensive and racially charged.
"You are, and you have been for a long time, a violent bully," Mr Justice Hughes told Halling as he ordered him to serve a minimum of 20 years.
This week, both Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes social services departments admitted they should have acted differently.
A Milton Keynes Council spokesman said its procedures had now been improved.
"Unmistakably there needs to be much clearer cross-border communication
between different authorities in cases like this. All the agencies involved have learned lessons," he said.
A Beds County Council spokesman said a Local Safeguarding Children's Board had now been formed.
"We investigated concerns about Deraye's welfare... clearly, with the benefit of hindsight, more could have been done to
liaise with other agencies," he said.
sally.murrer@mkcitizen.co.uk
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