Any Body Watch Look North Tonight?

[leahbee]

I just cannot put words to how I feel after watching this programme.
The whole programme was about the circumstances surrounding
the death of babyHamza Khan.
How the hell can something like this happen . The mother wants shooting, l would do it myself if they could let me. What about the other children living in this squalor,no one has mentioned them. How did they live with the smell of rotting flesh.
Sorry I,m shaking so much I can't type properly.

[Peter Pedant]

.

Constant smell - you can suppress it. My grandfather could not smell his jaw rotting but everyone else could. The mother was constanly drunk by all accounts.

There was one case where the kids tell the Police when they finally call:
please take us away !

[loobylou]

I'm typing this with tears streaming down my face. Just hearing the neighbours say that 'if they had known what was going on etc etc they would have done something about it' Sorry you SHOULD have done something about it. Flies in the house, children in the house, nappies etc etc should have flagged up something was amiss in that house. Did they not notice that the children were absent? I would rather be seen as an interfering neighbour than have the death or abuse of a child on my conscience. I think that the young PCSO, now a constable, needs a medal for her conduct in bringing this case to light. There are major failings in the system of care for our children again. If something is wrong or appears to be wrong it SHOULD be investigated. How can a child not be seen by a GP/health worker for routine health checks without it being investigated? How can a child not go to school for month/years and it not be investigated?

[carrust]

I watched it & was astonished by the apathy shown by the neighbours, the family and the social services. If someone like that was living next door to me I would certainy have been on the phone to the authoroties. As for the father...where was he for 2yrs!

[leahbee]

Thank you loobylou you have put things far better than I could.
I too know only too well the smell of rotting flesh and its some thing that you never forget.

[ChillDoubt]

Given what happens all too often in such cases, is it any wonder the neighbours were apathetic?

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1280357.html

If we can't trust those whose duties are protecting children to do their job, what course of action is left?
Try and get involved ourselves, with the risk of censure or arrest?

[joko]

its utterly horrific and she is clearly sick, but you can't really blame the neighbours - not everyone knows their neighbours or has much to do with them.
I vaguely know a few of mine by sight but i would not have clue what was going on in their houses, who else lives in them, and if there was a dead person inside either.
it not that kind of street.

the only person to blame here is the person responsible - the mother.

the social services also have to shoulder some responsibility in not checking on him sooner.

[loobylou]

neighbours had lived with the smell for months.

One, who asked to be named only as ***** , said she stopped putting her washing outside because it would end up covered in flies.

She said: "A lot of rubbish came out of that house. There were skips outside being filled with rubbish, pizza boxes and vodka bottles and nappies and all sorts.




Another neighbour, ******** said Hutton was "always aggressive and moody".

He said: "All the kids were terrified of the mother, the way her language was and her attitude because she were always drunk basically.

"She never used to let them play out."



Mr *****said when he saw Hamzah in the window sometimes he thought the child looked pale and weak.

"If I knew the poor lad was starving I would have gone and called his father and said 'look this is what's happening', or told the police or social services, something like that," he said.

[anneasquith]

joko, I find you post a bit sad, is this the country we now live in. where we don't know our neighbours , don't know who lives in what house and with whom, are we all so busy , we don't know/care what is happening next door to us . because I believe we all have a duty to contact authorities if we even suspect a child maybe at risk. no disrespect joko.

[joko]

looby - that all sounds horrible but it also just sounds like lots of places - it does not mean they knew something was wrong and ignored it. .

so there was a smell - people just assume its drains etc - who would think its was a body?
so she piles rubbish in a skip - so do lots of people - that's what they're for.
so she eats pizza and likes a drink - so what? lots of people do.
so she was moody? - so are lots of people!

i'm not defending her - or anyone - i'm just saying you cant just decide that someone is a child killer because they are a bit antisocial and untidy

i do think if they were so upset with her they should have cmplained more about the state of the house etc - but you cannot blame them for what she has done - you cannot expect them to have 'known' - that is the stuff of horrors - it is the last thing people would think.

i agree that if they had truly suspected something then they should have reported it - i like to think i would have - but i suspect rather than ignoring it, they just didn't 'connect the dots' - they surely could not have imagined the truth!


it is noted that social services, police and various other officials visited the property on many occasions and nothing was found to be of particular worry - maybe the neighbours saw them and thought all must be in hand? assumed they were being monitored and would find anything untoward?

but it is they who need to be investigated - why did none of them notice this terrible smell? or the flies? or rubbish everywhere? or any of it?
and they actually went inside the house - and still did nothing!
so if they didn't see anything, if these people who are trained to read a situation, saw no issues, how can you expect people who may have barely even crossed paths with this woman to know?

it is also worth noting that he was eventually discovered because a neighbour did indeed report it and raised the suspicions of a police woman who went to the house many times.

i just think we should blame the culprit here.


i just think it would anger me if something like this happened in my street and people tried to blame me for it.

[joko]

anne - i suppose it is sad...
but some roads are like that - people don't hang about in the streets, like they used to.
i live on a main road, full of shops and i live above a shop, so i see many people and don't know who are neighbours and who are shoppers,
but i cant see any out of my windows - all i see are bedroom windows with nets.

i know the nearest ones by sight and say hello in passing to them, but i don't know their names - except for one who i get her post sometimes.
i do of course know a few of the shopkeepers by name by now and do chat to them.
but why would i know what goes in house i live near? any more than they know what goes on in my house?
i cannot see inside them unless they invite me in, so why would i see anything untoward? they certainly would not tell me would they?
if someone is doing something dodgy then they will make extra sure no-one knows about it.

[joko]

not trying to start a row here by the way
- believe me, i know how you all feel - and i feel the same way about this wretch of a woman - and i agree its hard to believe this could happen, but i am just trying to analyse the situation from other angles rather than blaming anyone other than the guilty.

[bazwillrun]

she has eight kids !? cant find out if they all lived in the same house though.

[viv38]

I can't get over the picture they always show of this little mite, he looks really sad, not happy and smiling like tots usually are. She's got a 15 year sentence by the way, but I think she should have got double that.