Individuals in England and Wales found guilty of causing or allowing a child to die could now be handed a life sentence following a new law which comes into force today. Prior to the change in law, the maximum sentence available for these crimes was 14 years.
‘Tony’s Law’ which is included in the Police, Crime and Sentencing Act 2022, also raises the maximum penalty for causing serious harm to a child from 10 to 14 years.
The legislation was named after 7-year-old Tony Hudgell, who was battered by his birth parents as a baby and left with life-altering injuries. His abusers were given 10 years in jail in 2018, which was the maximum sentence available at the time.
Child rights campaigners and lawyers have welcomed the move to enable tougher sentencing for serious cases of violence against children, but also warned the new measures were unlikely to deter abusers and could also create problems in cases where the cause of injury to a child is not easy to determine.
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I hope this young lad makes a full recovery. Such a sad state of affairs when parents do this to their own children. unfortunately council S/workers use this sort of thing as the excuse to remove more children from good law abiding parents.
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Unfortunately social workers tend to leave physically damaged or abused children where they are (hard to adopt ) and take children supposedly at risk from possible future harm !
When baby p was murdered the number of children taken into care increased dramatically but the number of those taken for physical abuse declined whilst the numbers taken for risk of future emotional harm more than doubled !
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Unfortunately many children are not Recognised as having disabilities for medical reasons and children are taken prior to confirmation of medical evidence. Something that needs more attention as FASO hear on our helpline many times.
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