In reply to FesteringSore:
> Twelve years for manslaughter; 3 for cruelty. Any thoughts?
The facts of this case make disturbing reading:-
http://www.thelawpages.com/court-cases/Amanda-Jane-Hutton-12043-1.law
From the judges own summing up:-
Amanda Hutton was mother to 8 (yes eight) children all to the same , absent , father who had been violent towards her.
The father had not seen the child in at least 2 years. Even if he had seen the child in the 4.5 years of its life it was seriously neglected having died in a babygro made for a child of 6 to 9 months of age.
If the father had seen the child whilst alive there is no mention that he raised any of the issues with the social services.
The father must shoulder some of the blame in this case. Fathering 8 children and being violent to his wife. There are no apparent details of why the parents parted other than it happened in 2008 when the child was 3. The child died in Dec 2009. At that time the child must have been in a state of neglect as , at the time of its death, it was the size of a 6 to nine month old. Yet there is no mention of the fathers part in this. The father did not see the child between Dec 2009 and Sept 2011 and , apart from some anecdotal evidence that he reported his concern to the police, there is nothing to show that he attempted to see any of the children during this period.
The social services must also account for their apparent lack of action in this case.
After the Victoria Climbie and Baby "P" cases senior figures within the government stated "Lessons must be learned". It would appear that, once again, lessons have not been learned. I seriously doubt that anyone, within social services, will accept any responsibility in this case. It will only be a matter of time before we are, once again, horrified at the neglect and suffering of a child or children.
So we had an alcoholic mother with 6 children in her care. She would have been , most probably, receiving benefits and living in social housing. If this does not ring alarm bells with social services and lead to interventions then I would suggest that it is not "lessons " than need to be "Learned" but the whole system needs a full and open independent review. Those in positions of responsibility either need to prove that they can run the service or they need to be replaced by people who can.
The mother in this case is ultimately responsible for the death of the child. There are undoubtedly other single mothers who look after large families on their own and do so to the best of their ability.
In this case she was not only charged with the death of 1 child but with five other offenses of cruelty to her other children too.
She will be eligible for parole in 2021. Eight years for 1 death and 5 counts of child neglect. She got off very lightly. But then so did others in this case.