Revealed: How social workers failed tragic Casey, age two

A TODDLER raped and murdered by her uncle may be alive today had the authorities heeded warning signs about her home life, according to a damning report.

Two-year-old Casey Mullen was strangled in bed by her uncle Michael Mullen, 21, while her parents were downstairs.

Social services staff at Leeds Council failed to properly assess the risk to Casey despite the fact that she had suffered a burn to her shin caused by hair straighteners when she was 10 months old.

She was discharged from hospital but her parents missed a significant number of follow-up outpatient appointments.

Senior paediatricians believed that the burn was not an accident but this new information was not acted upon and the case was closed by social services who initially were told it was an accident, according a Serious Case Review published yesterday.

The authorities also failed to assess the risk posed by her uncle, even though he had been charged with raping a 12-year-old girl when he was 17.

Because the case was dropped, there was no assessment of the risk he posed to children.

The Leeds Safeguarding Children Board report identifies ten lessons to be learnt and criticises agencies for missing opportunities to share information about Casey – whom they call “child J”.

It says that careful assessment of Casey’s home life should have indicated that she was exposed to “significant risk” but a decision to close the case following the burn incident was not considered by a senior social work manager.

And it criticised agencies for making assumptions that others were aware of the risk factors present in Casey’s home life.

The failure to complete an assessment by social services meant that the case was deemed to be a low priority.

It concludes that “there were areas of risk which were not fully integrated, leading to a lack of action that could have taken place which may have prevented the death of child J.”

Social services are also criticised for failing to assess the parenting skills of Casey’s mother and failing to realise the risk posed by Michael Mullan’s heavy drinking and drug abuse.

Last night there were calls for social workers in the case to be “called to account”.

The director of the Victoria Climbie Foundation, Mor Dioum, said the report revealed “complacency” and “extreme incompetence” at carrying out “basic practice”.

He said: “I’m just getting fed up of these cases which highlight serious concerns about social services failures to intervene to protect a child’s life.

“Non-accidental injuries were identified by senior paediatricians but a core assessment was not carried out. That is totally unacceptable.”

It reveals extremely poor communication between various agencies. There is no margin for this type of error. Social worker managers should be called to account.”

And Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, said it was clear that social services departments required improved training and resourcing.

Leeds Council’s director of children’s services, Rosemary Archer, admitted that there were “gaps in the system” designed to protect vulnerable children and that services in Leeds “missed opportunities to be more involved with the family”.

She said: “All core assessments are now being completed and a manager takes responsibility for organising case work and dealing with staff workloads.

“There is also improved routine communication between all of the organisations which have a responsibility for child protection in Leeds.

“A review has already taken place – and addressed – issues around staffing, supervision and workload for social work teams within children’s services.”

# MICHAEL Mullan was jailed for life in July 2007 after admitting the rape and murder of his niece.

The crime bore chilling similarities to a sadistic pornographic movie he had watched days earlier.

Mullen was ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years in jail after he was described as a dangerous predatory paedophile suffering a psychopathic disorder which left him capable of further “lethal and violent sexual crimes against children”.

After murdering his niece, Mullen left her home in Oak Tree Crescent, Gipton, Leeds, in a taxi with his his brother David, Casey’s father, with whom he had been drinking earlier.

After his arrest police discovered indecent images of children on his computer, including a sadistic movie in which a pre-pubescent girl with a ligature around her neck was being sexually abused. They also found a photograph of Casey naked from the waist down on his mobile phone.