The public is in a state of outrage and heartbreak over the horrific child neglect and murder case. Numerous commenters demand severe punishment for the perpetrators and express deep concern for child protection systems. The overwhelming sentiment reflects disgust towards the parents' actions, support for stricter child welfare measures, and a plea for accountability for systemic failures in safeguarding children.

Perpetrators (parents)

Child Welfare Agencies

Governmental Authorities

Just say teenagers. Children sounds more like primary school age than 15 and 16 year olds. The 16 year old is old enough to vote and join the army. Hardly a "child".

ThatJoeyFella

I kids have always done bad shit but it seems that kids are doing even worse stuff even younger.

MDFHASDIED

If you're old enough to murder, you're old enough to be tried as an adult. Name and shame these scumbags.

SaveJustSurvive

Surprised this doesn’t happen every month. When i was in school (5-10 years ago) literally every teacher i know has a story of some student, either theirs or friend’s,  being involved in a knife crime one way or another.

thpkht524

If you're old enough ti vote. You're old enough to be named and charged as an adult.

JC_snooker

40 year old victim is a bit unusual. I guess we shall have to wait and see if this goes to court.

geniice

Leysdown is fucking grim, even worse in the summer holiday. One of the worst places in England.

OMG-BEES-RUN

I grew up on the island in the 80s &amp; 90s, and it was a violent place back then. It's a very deprived area with the kinds of social ills that severe, entrenched poverty brings. This isn't a surprising story to come out of that place, sadly.

kpreen

It happened within breathing distance of a caravan park and three teenagers seem to have got into a fight with a grown man in his 40s?

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that a) they're all known to each other and b) none of them are local.

Jolly-Minimum-6641

So I know someone that knows the 16 year old she hit him over the head with a slab because she said he was a child molester .. obviously this is just what the girls parents are saying

Pristine-Luck-785

And people wonder why many of us don’t want to have kids. Financially it’s unaffordable but right now it’s also not safe for kids either. Was my dream to be a mother but me and my husband had to give it up due to these two reasons and I hated that we did but felt like it was the right choice sadly

Dramatic-Ad-4607

Nice try BBC, but these days the public only become outraged if crimes are committed by immigrants

Brilliant-Elk-6831

Sharon Carr is one of the most unique cases I have ever read about. For any 12 year old to commit a sexually motivated murder is exceptionally unusual, for the perpetrator to be a female is almost entirely unheard of.

WilkosJumper2

The two that make me sad are the ones where a child is left to babysit a sibling. Why are you leaving a 6yo in a car with a baby for almost 2 hours? And why is an 11yo babysitting 5 other kids at night? These kids were dealt bad hands.

Tiny-Reading5982

 
I hadn’t heard of many of these cases. Case about a 7 year old killing a full grown man is astounding. Absolutely unthinkable that a child would be capable of such a thing.

Great write up! Thank you for sharing!

lizzie_goblin

This is incredibly well written and I really enjoyed reading the entire thing!! These cases are unique, I’ll be doing a deep dive on them thanks to this post, great work and great eye for cases. 

It stands out to me that most of them experienced severe neglect/abuse, interesting what that does to the brain but nonetheless, incredibly devastating. I feel horrible for the children that came from the environment and the victims of highly preventable crimes.

Yerba_king

this is really sad. most of these children came from dysfunctional homes or were abused/hurt themselves. really scary cause u wouldn’t expect a child to even think about committing a crime like these

Waheeda_

PuzzleheadFool

This is so well done.  Thank you for the time you took.  I also find these less known cases so interesting.  I was surprised to see the story of the school shooting before Columbine.  How was this not a huge story?  Again thank you for sharing this with fellow true crime enthusiasts.

True-Put-3712

If you want an interesting story about a child murderer, look up Jesse Pomeroy. It's a fascinating case. 
He was actually sent to Boys Town first for assaulting two children, but his mom begged for him to be let out. 
He killed two children within days of each other not long after returning home. 
He was 13.

Automatic-Hunter1317

The jumping rope murder in Ljungby, Sweden

On october 16 2011, a 4 year old boy went missing in the town of Ljungby, Sweden. He had been at the playground. I think he was with a sibling although i'm not entirely sure. I know you might be thinking it is wrong to let a 4 year old wander around the block by himself without supervision but Ljungby is still quite a small town and i guess that they thought it was safe. 

He was found strangled to death in a small wooded area.  

2 months after the murder it was announced that the murder has officially been solved and that the perpetrator was a 10 year old boy who due to his age could not be charged with a crime. Social services took over this case at that point.

The boy was described as having a temper and he did have a history of getting into fights with other kids. Apparently, some sort of argument occurred at the playground and it escalated to an assault and finally, the 4 year old was strangled to death with a jumping rope. 

The murder was most likely a crime of passion and not premeditated. 

We know that the boy was relocated to another town but there are a lot of information still left out becauae he was only 10 years old at the time

SwedishFicca

belltrina

you forgot that red headed kid- i forgot his name but the case was huge-

Environmental-Fix511

Well done write up! Made me think of a case in England where 2 young boys (11 and 12?) lured a 5 year old away from the mall he qas in with hus mum and murdered him. It's been a while ago so their names allude me, but I think one of them was named Adam. They were both released, and one of them is now back in prison as he's a repeat offender sadly.

[deleted]

This is so sad and interesting. Amazing write up! Looking forward to your next onw

Big_Meesh_

great post. I hadn't heard of a lot of these. looking forward to part 2!

anneylani

I spent 20 years working corrections.  The first few were with juvenile violent offenders.  In my career, I worked with 2 twelve year olds that killed.  

One killed his elderly foster parents because they made him sit at the table until his homework was done.  He laid in the bathtub late one night with a stolen shotgun.  He banged on the tub to draw in the man and shot him in the chest.  The woman, hearing the shotgun blast, went to the bathroom and she was shot in the head.  He then stole their pickup to run away, but only got a few miles down the road before being caught.  He never showed any remorse and was released when he turned 21.  

The other bludgeoned a seven year old with downs syndrome before attempting to rape him.  After failing, he drown the boy in the river next to their campsite.  No remorse, except for being caught.  Released at 21.

shoff22

Logical_Sweet_6624

Dude the amarjeet story is crazy. Poor lady had two newborns killed by that monster.

Where did you get your info for Jane “George” Scott and “John” Yates? I am trying to find more info on the crime and what year it is but I am unable to find anything about it. When I search Jane “George” Scott, it comes up with a Jane Eyre movie by George C Scoot and when I look up “John” Yates, it comes up with an older gentleman’s obituary. Even if I put east Baton Rouge next to it, or key word “murder” or “abuse”

IntelligentPublic293

Don't forget Shafilea Ahmed, and Savannah Leckie, them two girls who were killed by their parents attracted significant public attention world wide.

Comfortable-Table-57

&gt;Nine-month-old Genevieve died from asphyxiation when she was tightly swaddled, strapped to a beanbag, and left unattended by a nursery worker for 90 minutes.

14 years for manslaughter. She as good as murdered that little girl. Evil. Stuff like this makes me worry to send my own to a nursery.

Practical-Purchase-9

it's the same in the care industry - we underpay and understaff the industries used to care for the most vulnerable and then act shocked when plenty of them are shit at care, not interested in care, and not irregularly, cruel. 

of course there are good care and nursery workers but the system is broken. 

I reported a woman for purposely hitting an elderly man on the head with his hoist (hard). the care agency acted irritated and frustrated and other people bitched about the person who did it (it was supposedly anonymous) for ruining her life.

annakarenina66

My heart hurt a little when I opened this and saw it was the parents of little Genevieve. Their story really stuck with me since it was first in the news. Obviously in their case, I don't think you can ignore the fact that the woman hired to care for Genevieve was evidently (with hindsight) pure evil. But I am routinely surprised by how many nurseries completely disregard what I would see as basic H&amp;S considerations. Choking hazards in particular, as well as other things such as disregard for basic NHS advice re sun safety.

Thomasine7

When my son was 3, I put him in a nursery because to get his ehcp (he’s severely autistic) that’s what I was told I had to do, put him in an educational setting. 

Well you can guess my absolute fury when reading the notes made by the speech therapist for the ehcp about one of her visits, my son was supposed to have 1:1 and the nursery was being paid for that extra staff member by the council, well he had no 1:1 but they pocketed the money. Then there was a time I collected him and nobody had paid attention to him so had no idea where his socks and shoes were (he liked to strip at that time) but the speech therapists notes specifically stated that despite her sessions with my son were meant to be alongside a nursery staff member they weren’t and she herself had to step into the room when she first arrived and stop my son (who was left indoors on his own) from climbing out of the front window which opened up to a busy main road. They were told many times by myself, his father and even other professionals that got involved for the ehcp that my son was a flight risk and had no sense of danger so this is one of the many reasons why he needed 1:1 at all times, to prevent his attempts to escape out a fucking window.

Ever since then I have always tried to be more vigilant on nursery and school settings, I’ve gone to some nurseries and have just seen staff sat around chatting whilst the kids are left to their own devices, I’ve seen one nursery where staff members were having fags in the garden area near the children instead of away from the nursery building. There’s also been a lot of other cases where I just think “who the hell are you hiring?” Because you can tell the staff aren’t there because that’s the career they want to be in, they’re just doing it for a job and barely interact with the small children people are trusting them to care for.

My heart goes out to this family, a lot needs to be done with these nurseries nowadays. Why aren’t better background checks being made? Why are incidents like this occurring when the parents should be able to leave and have the knowledge that their child is safe and cared for?

My sister works at one and she finds that agency staff can be very hit and miss, but usually more miss than hit. It does not help that child to staff ratios are large and providing safe levels can be a challenge when demand for places is relentless. More needs to be done to address the skills of some nursery workers and individuals need to be reported if it seems their skills are not up to standard. That way, they can be removed from the system earlier.

pajamakitten

I remember my son coming home walking like he'd been on a horse all day.  He'd been left in a spoiled nappy and it had basically eroded his skin from his crotch.  My husband went and shouted at the nursery staff who were in charge.


Next day they had the gall to say how upset the nursery leader was from my husband shouting at her.   I was livid!

Ur_favourite_psycho

I'm still not entirely sure how that death wasn't seen as murder.

limeflavoured

These things happen directly because of privatisation..

When nurseries, children's homes, elder care homes etc were directly run by local councils, staff were much more thoroughly vetted, more closely monitored, much better trained, and paid a decent wage 

Private companies are profit driven. They will cut corners, like under staffing, under paying and never investing in training. 

Lots of people working in the caring sector are dedicated hardworking individuals. However, since privatisation, bad staff are not weeded out, as long as they're cheap and reliable. 


Source. Worked various roles in the care sector. Watched the changes privatisation bought. Quit in the end because I'm not prepared to abuse/ neglect vulnerable people so greedy individuals can profit 


The owners /managers should also have been held criminally liable for this poor baby's death 

Hazeygazey

This is why no child of mine will ever go to a nursery. I wouldn't trust under qualified and over worked people to look after my child.

goingpt

How did the other staff let this happen? They should be charged as well. I'm glad at least the main culprit has been charged

cashmerescorpio

I wouldn't use one of the nurseries near me after seeing when the staff take the kids to the park they are always just sitting on their phones not paying attention.

Snaidheadair

And yet here the government are increasing ratios so nurseries don’t need as many staff while at the same time throwing ‘free’ hours out to flood settings to breaking point, increasing ofsted standards to school levels while paying staff less than someone working at Aldi - all while promoting school nurseries in an effort to kill off the private sector.

scouseconstantine

Nurseries are generally staffed by underpaid, underappreciated, undertrained or overworked workers who can't be better trained or paid because it would make the nurseries unaffordable to most parents.

Having scouted nurseries for my own young children, I discovered most places cheat the statutory staff to child ratio by counting management and admin staff, who are only present amongst the kids part of the time. There is incredible churn and turnover and the youngest babies and toddlers especially are the most neglected because they are the least mobile.

We won't subsidise the industry any more because the public sector spending bill is already too high, so ultimately the only solution to better nurseries is higher prices which means parents can't afford them.

And we all as a society scratch our heads as to why the birth rate is so low.

_HGCenty

Early years professional, the issue is how shit and unapproachable OFSTED are. Young staff are terrified as OFSTED inspectors are unapproachable and can be rude, so they won't report anything. Also, as someone who has reported issues, they do very little unless you have a ton of evidence. 

We also have the issue of if you pay crap and get crap these largely women have at least 2 years of college to be qualified get get paid less than those working in a supermarket. I've seen nursery balance sheets, and the issue is piss poor funding. 

Anytime the government wants to not be absolute bell ends and do something about the above they can, but they won't. 

This setting had CCTV, which people seem to think will fix issues, but as we can see, it doesn't the issues run deep.

spanglesandbambi

Wow heartbreaking. Maybe getting rid of hazardous objects like a beanbag would be first step?

After the tories did the whole free hours for everyone things, it closed many nurseries because they got 4 quid per child across the board. 

The only reason a lot of places stayed open was because they accepted apprenticeships to basic cover the gaps. 

The Tories saw what the last one did and upped the number so the impact will be felt during the labour government. We're going to see more places close, making it harder for parents to access anything, and more incidents like this arise. 

It's going to get worse...

pizzaosaurs

The issue is a society that requires a mother to send her 9 month old to nursery

Trick_Standard_7794

Let's be real, that callous evil act wasn't just just person. Each person in that nursery not checking needs to be held responsible and put away as well.

Classic_Peasant

Standards at nurseries vary massively, even within the same groups. You see some where staff won't leave a room for two minutes to go to the toilet if that means they'll be out of ratio and others where the manager themselves evidently does not give a shit about the setting.

Operators will ruminate over the location, accessibility, marketing, condition of the building etc. but factor no. 1 is always the staff team.

NewEstablishment5444

These nurseries are often run with tons of apprentices and they few seniors staff. The managers/owners want to make the most money hence more apprentices who they can rinse for a few years cheaper.

The hours can be long  and the jobs difficult. It seems now with WhatsApp and such parents can or demand at least updates or pictures in groups as to what’s going on activity wise.

However from knowing a few apprentices it seems they can never get the time to actually do the work they need to do so end up having to do that in their own time despite raising this with the managers - who say they don’t have the time..

But because everyone is already stressed or overrun, kids aren’t always watched to the best ability and accidents happen. Honesty I think if you knew how many sometimes you’d probably never want to send your kid to a nursery or daycare again..

setokaiba22

Absolutely tragic. Reading how many incidents occur is quite shocking. These are places children should be safe, i cannot understand the neglect at all. I dont get it

Celestial__Peach

If I had a baby, I'd never let them out of my sight. I know times have changed, however, young babies need their mums and dads.


I am not judging the parents, and I am saying this as a former  3 month old baby, who was repeatedly assaulted by my parents, until  several of my my bones broke (I still have physical scars on my legs) - so perhaps I have a different perspective on this. 


Poor baby - I am glad a 14 year prison sentence was issued. 

Zealousideal-Sail893

This is why I would never put my baby into nursery until they were at least 3 years old. I can’t imagine trusting strangers to take care of my baby. It’s super hard though, I have no village so childcare is fully on my shoulders.

This is awful though, I mean children should be safe at nurseries and I can’t imagine what those parents are going through. Also 14 years prison sentence is not enough.

Birdie_92

Listening to the description of what happened made me feel light-headed.

Character_Mention327

Why did the nursery worker get 14 yrs but ur average rapist gets under 2?

&gt;Mr Varley is accused of murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration of a child, five counts of child cruelty, one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm, and one count of sexual assault of a child.


Jesus fucking christ the headline really fucking understates the depravity and horrific abuse that poor baby suffered. 

Embolisms

This case is horrific and even the word murder fails to encapsulate the despicable nature of the crime and what this baby suffered.

If convicted the only acceptable sentence is a whole life tariff. A person capable of committing such acts should never be let back into society.

Coldulva

It’s really scary that they also worked with children too. Horrific

Anonymous_0012345

Let’s hope someone gets too them in prison, giving them a prison sentence is not justice enough.

Choice_Sorbet9821

If he’s done this to a baby and was a former teacher, how many other victims has this sick B**tard got out there. 

That poor, poor boy 😢

MissWiggleNjiggle1

How can anyone be against the death penalty when you read these types of articles? Absolutely disgusting

This is just horrible. Horrible in every way. Sometimes it's hard not to believe that some people are just *evil*.

pikantnasuka

Bring back hard labour - breaking rocks 12 hours a day would be a start

Main-Entrepreneur841

I waited tables with a woman who experienced something similar. She wasn’t charged in the end, but she was scrutinized and accused and everyone in her life believed she killed him. She lost her baby and her entire life, plus she had to live with knowing that the people she loved most thought she killed her son. 

She struggled with drug addiction after that and whenever I start feeling a little judgy I think about her. I doubt I could have gone through that without turning to something, either.

Odd-Guarantee-6152

Reminds me of the Australian woman who went to jail because no one believed a pack of dingos killed her baby. Wasn’t until years later a hiker just happened to find an old dingo den with the child’s clothes still in it.

OriginalName687

A friend of mine knows someone who lost 2 infants to SIDS, &amp; was there at the house both times it happened. The 2nd was even more gut wrenching because the baby's father was paranoid of SIDs due to his daughter's death before, and would always be watching his son sleep just in case. He was holding the baby while they were sitting on the sofa talking &amp; he suddenly died in his arms. Poor dude was not ok after that and turned to heroin.

It's awful to think that if my friend hasn't witnessed the tragedies the parents could have been blamed.

HauntedButtCheeks

OMG, that poor mother.  I don't even think I would have survived long enough to make it to jail.  I can't imagine losing a child, let alone being convicted of killing her.  I can't even handle the stupid things people say about me on Reddit, I'd have probably had a heart attack in the trial.

This is awful. There’s a similar Australian case Kathleen Folbigg she lost 4 of her babies and was jailed for it. Turns out they all had a hereditary medical condition and there was a lot of botched stuff during the case investigation. She served 20years before the ruling was overturned.

noideawhattouse1

We knew about SIDS back then, but I could see them getting suspicious that it happened twice.

DaisyDuckens

Jesus f\*\*\*ing Christ. That poor woman's life turned into such a dumpster fire she drank herself to death.

I remember this so well because she lived in the same town as me. All round just a Very, very sad series of events. I seem to remember the doctor involved (prof. Meadows?) saying something along the lines of one being a tragedy but two being murder. Turns out out his research was deeply flawed.

Sea-Breaz

The newest* research on SIDS, and you are able to look this up easily online for the most part , has shown that it’s fundamentally misunderstood, basically in that, it is **not** something that any kid *could have*, it’s now understood to be a disease (or what have you) that is just a sort of random genetic trait some specific kids have. 

That might soothe the thoughts of a parent who had lost a child to SIDS or a parent that is worried about it; basically it’s nothing that any parent has done, some kids are just born with a gene that makes it more likely for them to die randomly from no external cause.


That said, keep your baby safe, don’t leave blankets in the bed, and don’t smoke around them - duh! - don’t be a dick still applies. BUT! SIDS isn’t caused by a lot of what we previously thought. 

* = newest research in the last 5-10 years, still not widely known as many people are still worried SIDS might be lurking everywhere.

WASTELAND_RAVEN

I lost my brother to SIDs. Born June 15th, died July 26th a month later.


I was 2. So my memory is gone, but there are pictures of me and him.

My sister lost her 2 year old from something similar (sudden unexplained death of a child) and when the paramedics came, as soon as they were gone the cops were investigating everyone, including her 5 year old son.

annaleigh13

I met a lady whilst I was in the mbu whose son had died of something similar to sids called Sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUCD).

Absolutely heartbreaking hearing her talk about her little lad, I still think of her to this day. She's doing so well now but good god she lived through every parents nightmare.

0chrononaut0

I knew someone who went through a similar situation in the 90s. They had other children who ended up in foster care. IIRC it took years to clear their names and it only happened when a new disease was discovered, that it turned out their children had.

jesuseatsbees

she died from depression. Alcohol merely was the tool that was used in her own suicide.

Wizzle-Stick

Iiuc, it's not a "disease", but a catch-all term for "we don't know what happened". 

daniu

Frankly, the whole “jury of your peers” concept is freaking scary, given the level of stupidity that gets broadcasted day in and out on social media

nznordi

Omg, this is just horrifying. That poor woman. The pain of losing my kids would be enough to do me in; can’t imagine being convicted on top of that.

mintbubbletea

Yet another thing that puts me off having kids. God forbid you lose your child, you’re experiencing the worst pain imaginable, and you also have to worry about getting investigated because people will think you did it.

ButteryCats

Kathleen Folbig in Australia. 4 babies. She's just been exonerated after serving 2 decades in prison, her conviction was overturned because experts now believe all her children shared a genetic defect

Apprehensive-Ad4244

This case is actually worse that the link provides.  It is highly possible the second baby died of a Staphylococcal infection - the evidence was known to the prosecution pathologist, but not shared with the other medical witnesses or the defence.

GrumpyOik

I thought cot death / sids was well known by the 90s after Ann Diamond had such a tragedy and made people aware 

Forward_Artist_6244

People in the comments have the wrong idea about what SIDS is. It isn't a thing anymore because it's not a syndrome. It actually called SUID now. Sudden Unexplained Infant Death. 


Like 99% of the time it's just a fancy word for the baby was in an unsafe position (usually when being lay down for sleeping) and was smothered or died from asphyxiation. 


Examples are the parent rolled over on it when they were asleep in bed together, they got put in a crib full of blankets and one got pulled over it's face, or it's body slipped in a car seat or rocker and it's chin got pinned to its chest. 


It's sad but I can totally see how if a parent had two of these incidents people would look at it as intentional. 

We had a similar situation in Canada (Ontario) where a pathologist, [Charles Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Smith_(pathologist)), performed child autopsies that resulted in a number of wrongful convictions.

tstewart_jpn

RTwhyNot

AceOfCakez

I remember this case - I didn’t know she died a few years later that’s heartbreaking - that poor woman

Jesus, talk about being dealt an absolute shit hand in life.

Sounds like what she really died from was trauma.

Bear_Caulk

Both children did not die from SIDS… the first child had a respiratory infection. That isn’t SIDS.  It’s not murder, but it’s not SIDS. The other child had bleed behind the eyes and in the spine.  Better investigation would probably found the cause.

durtmagurt

Love and sympathy to this lady, even though she can't feel it, and all the other who go through this

New-Conversation-88

An Indian-origin couple in the UK has been charged with the murder of their daughter, raising serious child welfare concerns.

Child Neglect and Murder Case in the UK

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