Star Hobson: Shocking failure of social workers to spot horrific abuse of TWO murdered toddlers revealed

THE shocking failure of social workers to stop the horrific abuse of two murdered toddlers was revealed yesterday.

Concerned relatives of toddler Star Hobson contacted the authorities five times before she was murdered by her mum’s girlfriend Savannah Brockhill.

SWNSStar Hobson was murdered by her mum’s girlfriend[/caption]

MEN MediaElla-Rose Clover was murdered by her godmother’s boyfriend in 2018[/caption]

In the days leading up to the 16-month-old’s death, her great-grandad had alerted social workers of ongoing abuse.

Frank Smith, 68, sent a video of Star with a black eye and bruising around her ear a week before she was murdered.

However, social workers dismissed his complaint as malicious due to the alleged disapproval of Frankie’s same-sex relationship and they closed the case.

“I sent that video to social services and they didn’t want to know,” Mr Smith told The Sun.

“They said I was being malicious. How can that be malicious? Social services shouldn’t be allowed to get away with saying ‘we’ll learn lessons’.

 “They’re supposed to be trained to spot this kind of thing. It’s broken me. You put your trust in the authorities to do something and they let you down.”

Meanwhile, Star’s other great-grandfather David Fawcett said his concerns were dismissed by Bradford City Council authorities despite warning them that Star could be the “next Baby P.“

The heartbreaking brutality of the abuse suffered by Peter Connelly – known as Baby P – in the months before his death appalled Britain.

Little Peter was born to mum Tracey Connelly in March 2006 and died at her Tottenham home after suffering a catalogue of horrific abuse in 2007.

Mr Fawcett shared two harrowing pictures of Star to Facebook – one of her looking happy and the other a picture of the little girl bruised.

“From this to this in five weeks, what’s going on Frankie?’ he wrote.

Mr Fawcett said of Star’s murderer: “To me, she was just pure evil.

“She ascended from the bowels of hell and just completely devastated and wrecked our family.”

They had contacted social services because Brockhill “slam-choked” Star – lifting her up by the throat and throwing her on a bed.

Mr Fawcett said of Bradford council: “They had five chances to help Star and failed every time. It was shambolic.

“If social services had taken more notice Star would be alive today.”

In another appalling case, little Ella-Rose Clover also became a victim of social work and medical blunders.

The 22-month-old was murdered by 30-year-old Michael Wild, her godmother’s boyfriend, on January 21, 2018.

Star Hobson with bruising on her face

MEN MediaMichael Wild is serving a life sentence for the murder of Ella-Rose[/caption]

The monster is now serving a life sentence.

An inquest at Manchester’s Coroners’ Court heard the “failings of a health trust could have caused the toddler’s death”.

And had the suspected abuse been referred to Manchester’s Children Services or the cops “her life could have been saved”.

During the inquest, Manchester Foundation Trust, which was responsible for Ella-Rose’s care, admitted it failed to raise its suspicions to the authorities after Ella-Rose was taken to Manchester Royal Children’s Hospital, where docs had to remove part of her bowel.

They also admitted that they should have alerted Greater Manchester Police and Manchester Children’s Services to this, when “her life was in fact at significant risk”.

Ella-Rose was taken to hospital nine times in the seven months before her death with bruising and internal injuries, in one case having emergency surgery to her bowel.

Six doctors and surgeons apologised or admitted they should have acted differently.

In a statement read by solicitor Diane Rostron, Ella-Rose’s mother Miss Clover told yesterday’s inquest: “Doctors failed to see what was staring them in the face. 

“They chose to ignore the obvious and test for increasingly rarer diseases. As each test proved negative, they searched for another one. 

“Two junior doctors raised concerns about possible abuse but they were ignored and a consultant couldn’t even recognise a black eye when [a photograph] was presented to him in the inquest.

“If they had done what they should have done, Ella would be alive today. There were so many opportunities to save Ella.”

A joint statement from local social services, health and police chiefs in Bradford told The Mail: “We all deeply regret that not all the warning signs were seen that could have led to firmer statutory enforcement action.”

The cases come after the death of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes who was murdered by his step-mum Emma Tustin.

The little boy had been poisoned by his dad and partner as they subjected him to a “campaign of cruelty” that matched the “medical definition of child torture.”

Tustin was convicted of murder with a minimum term of 29 years and Thomas Hughes was caged 21 years after being found guilty of manslaughter.

Star died while in the care of her mum (left) and her mum’s girlfriend (right)