Baby murdered by his parents ‘should have been one of the most protected’

A review into the murder of a baby murdered by his parents has found Finley Boden ‘should have been one of the most protected’ children in the area.

Ten-month-old Finley died after sustained abuse, with multiple fractures, burns and injuries which a court found could only have been inflicted by two people working together.

He died on Christmas Day during the winter 2020 Covid lockdown – just 39 days after he had been placed back into his parents’ care by social services.

A review published today by the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership found that the safeguarding of Finley was inadequate.

‘In this instance, a child died as the result of abuse when he should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area,’ it reads.

Drug users Stephen Boden, 30, and Shannon Marsden, 22, were both jailed for ;life last year.

The review notes how ambulance staff noted home conditions were ‘unkempt’ and ‘possibly smelled of cannabis’ while Finley’s clothes were soiled when they arrived to try and save him.

It says that while his parents were ultimately responsible for death and have been sentenced, ‘professional interventions should have protected him’.

The report says he was ‘a very young child whose parents were known to have posed a risk of significant harm to him and who, it had been agreed, required legal intervention to keep him safe.’

It found that staff missed the opportunity to ‘explore more fully the significance of cannabis use in the couple’s lives and to understand better its implications for their parenting’ as they seemed willing to ‘work around’ it and accept at face value the couple’s stated intention to cut down.

A parenting assessment of the couple had been done when Finley was not in their full time care, which was a very different situation to them having sole responsibility.

The report found ‘there was very limited evidence that the couple had been able to effect changes’.

Finley was very young and ‘completely dependent on his parents for all aspects of care,’ the report said. ‘There were many risks inherent in this situation. This was not adequately understood.’

Even in a successful reunification, the family would have needed a lot of support, the report said, but this was not provided.

Finley’s parents used a pandemic as an excuse to lie to social workers, refusing them access at one point claiming that Finley had Covid-19 symptoms.

The report said the local authority was working on improving ‘the quality of transition planning’ when children were returned to their parents.

‘Given the circumstances of this case, the safeguarding children partnership needs to be further assured that children are now properly protected when they return to parents’ care,’ it reads.

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