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FACTFILE
Tracey Connolly
and her baby, Peter Connolly (Baby P), were living in
Finsbury Park, North London, when Connolly's boyfriend
Stephen Barker moved in.
Barker was a
Nazi, and during police investigations they found Nazi
memorabilia as well as hunting knives and martial arts
equipment in the flat.
11th December 2006,
Peter was taken to Whittington hospital with a head injury.
A doctor noticed bruises on 9 month old Peter's face and chest.
Tracy Connolly
said that the marks were from throwing him up in the air,
adding he likes to play rough.
His mother was arrested and Peter was put into the care of a
family friend. Haringey social services visited the house,
they found it very untidy and smelling of urine, but no
further action was taken.
26th January 2007,
Peter was given back to his mother.
Over the next
few months, Peter was admitted to hospital on two separate
occasions suffering from injuries including bruising,
scratches and swelling on the side of the head.
May 2007,
Connelly was arrested again.
June 2007,
a social worker noticed marks on Peter and informed the
police. A medical examination concluded that the bruising
was due to abuse.
4th June 2007,
baby Peter was placed with a friend for safe keeping.
25th July
2007, Haringey Council's Children & Young People's
Service sought legal advice which said that the
"threshold for initiating Care Proceedings...was not met".
Peter was therefore returned to his mother.
1st August
2007, Baby Peter was seen at St. Ann's Hospital in north
London by a locum paediatrician. Serious injuries, including
a broken back and broken ribs, went undetected (the
subsequent autopsy report believed these to have pre-dated
the examination).
2nd August
2007, Tracey Connolly was informed that she would not be
prosecuted for child abuse.
3rd August
2007, An ambulance was called, when paramedics arrived at the house in Penshurt Road, Tottenham, baby Peter had been dead for
several hours. He was blue and wearing only a nappy.
While attempting
to get th baby to hospital the ambulance staff were asked to
wait, while Tracy Connolly went to collect her cigarettes,
her boyfriend, Barker, and his brother Jason Owen, stood
calmly at the front door as if nothing had happened.
A post-mortem
revealed that he had swallowed a tooth after being punched.
Other injuries included a broken back, which had left him
paralysed from the waist down, 8 broken ribs, bite marks all
over his body, mutilated fingertips, missing fingernails and
and toenails, as
well as bruises to his forehead, cheek, nose, lips, chest,
shin, and lower back.
11th November 2008,
As it could not be proved which individual had actually
caused the injuries that killer Peter, they were all
charged.
The 15 year old
girlfriend of Jason Owen, who often stayed at the house,
told the court that Stephen Barker liked to hold the baby by
the throat and throw him into the cot, he also liked to hit
the baby on the head to make him scream, and he found it
funny to squeeze the babies fingernails.
She added;
"'When he
wouldn't sit still Steve would shake him about, just make
bruises on him, pinches and stuff, swing him round by his
legs while he was screaming.
He had a bruise on his eye and that was because Steve used
to do that stuff to him.
'He would put him on a computer chair and spin him round so
he falls and hits his head.
Peter used to sit for hours with his head between his legs
and whenever he used to get up because he was hurting Steve
used to push his head down.
'Whenever he was crying he used to poke him in the head
hard.'
April 2009,
During a second trial, with Connelly and Barker, using
aliases, they faced charges related to the rape of a
two-year old girl.
The girl was
also on Haringey's child protection register. Barker was
found guilty of rape, while Connelly was found not guilty of
child cruelty charges.
Tracey Connelly,
was cleared of murder on the direction of the judge but
admitted causing or allowing the death of a child.
She was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment for public
protection with a minimum of five years before being
considered for parole.
22nd May 2009,
Sentencing for both trials together took place at the Old
Bailey.
Connelly was
ordered to be held indefinitely, until "deemed no longer to
be a risk to the public and in particular to small
children", with a minimum term of five years.
Barker was
sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape, with a minimum
sentence of ten years, and a 12-year sentence for his role
in the death of Peter, to run concurrently.
Owen was also
jailed indefinitely, and will serve at least three years.
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