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By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:33 PM on 2nd February 2011
- 17 chances to save Alex Sutherland were missed
- Mother admitted drinking up to six bottles of wine a day
The death of a 13-month old boy who was left in his buggy in front of a gas fire was both ‘predictable and preventable’, an inquiry found today.
Alex Sutherland was allowed to live with his mother Tracey even though she admitted drinking up to six bottles of wine a day.
Officials also closed the file on the youngster claiming the risk of harm to Alex was ‘low.’
Tragic: Alex Sutherland, who died aged 13 months, was found in a ‘scene of unimaginable horror’. His death was described as both ‘predictable and preventable’
They then missed 17 chances to save him after they were repeatedly contacted over concerns that 39-year old Sutherland was abandoning her boy to go drinking.
The calls also warned of ‘chronic neglect’ of the baby who was malnourished and underweight.
Jailed: Mother Tracey Sutherland, who drank up to six bottles of wine a day, was told she must serve 27 months behind bars
A month later police broke into the family home in Baguely, near Wythenshawe, Manchester to find baby Alex with charring to his body in his pushchair by a lit gas fire in a ‘scene of unimaginable horror.’
He was covered in faeces and had unexplained injuries on his body and was pronounced dead in hospital. His cause of death has never been established.
Former pharmacist Sutherland was later jailed for 27 months at Manchester Crown Court after she admitted neglect.
Today a report by Manchester Safeguarding Children’s Board into Alex’s death condemned health and social workers for a catalogue of failures saying his case ‘poorly managed throughout’ and his neglect was ‘both predictable and preventable.’
The report which referred to Alex as Child T and his mother as Mrs E said: ‘Child T was known to agencies because of Mrs E’s misuse of alcohol, yet 17 expressions of concern (four of which alleged she was drunk) failed to trigger a reconsideration of the initial assessments that the likelihood of future significant harm was low.
‘No single agency was responsible for failing to protect Child T from the chronic neglect which he suffered at the hands of his mother, but rather he was the victim of the multiple failures of all those agencies with whom he was involved to recognise the risks to which he was exposed and to take appropriate protective action.’
The report added that interventions were all about helping the mother – and did nothing for the child.
‘There was no evidence that at any time did any practitioner consider the world from Child T’s perspective,’ it said.
‘As a result, the impact of Mrs E’s alcohol misuse on her parenting capacity was overlooked and Child T continued to be neglected.’
The mother was described as an ‘emotionally needy women who has managed her personal distress for many years through the harmful use of alcohol.’
Sutherland, a mother-of-two, had been drinking since she was two years old and by 2007 she was drinking six bottles of wine a day.
Judge Clement Goldstone who jailed Sutherland criticised social services for their ‘lack of urgency’
She drank throughout Alex’s pregnancy and just three weeks after he was born in October 2008, police were called to the house to find him lying on the floor alongside combustible material in front of a gas fire.
Sutherland was staggering around drunk and saying she had been on a ‘three day bender’ due to ‘family problems.’
Although the youngster was taken into a care he was returned to his mother just nine days later after she insisted she would deal with her alcohol problems.
Officials said the ‘likelihood of further significant harm was low.’
But in the following weeks afterwards social services were alerted to a string of drunken escapades by Sutherland including one incident where she had a fight with a relative while holding Alex.
Just a month before the boy’s death, police had been called to Sutherland’s home after relatives said she was drinking heavily while neglecting Alex.
Police referred the incident to social workers but they closed the file after Alex appeared to be well.
And only a week before the tragedy an an anonymous call was made to social workers saying Alex looked small and undernourished and Sutherland’s mood and behaviour was ‘erratic.’
But although a health visitor asked for an appointment with Sutherland, it was put off for another week.
On the day of the tragedy police found Sutherland in a distressed state, wandering out in the street, in the pouring rain, dressed in her pyjamas, looking pale and shaking, telling officers she didn’t want to go home.
It emerged the youngster had been dead for three days but Sutherland remained with his body until her 39th birthday before alerting police saying she couldn’t bear to ‘let him go.’
In interview, Sutherland said to police ‘This is horrible, I’m a disgrace an absolute disgrace. I didn’t mean to harm him at all, absolute disgrace I am, sick in the head. Do I go to prison now?’
When Sutherland was sentenced to a jail term after admitting child cruelty, Judge Clement Goldstone QC criticised social services for their ‘startling lack of urgency’ in their dealings with Alex.
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