Grandparents Urged Social Workers To Help Boy Before Junkie Beat Him To Death

A toddler who was killed by his mother’s heroin-addict boyfriend had been on social workers’ files for more than a year – but was not considered to be at risk.

Brandon Muir died from a ruptured intestine after an assault by Robert Cunningham, 23, at the Dundee flat he shared with his mother, who was also addicted to drugs, and sister. Cunningham was found guilty yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow of culpable homicide.

The boy’s grandparents had contacted social services at Dundee City Council 19 days before his death, begging social workers to remove Brandon from the shambolic flat shared by their mother, Heather Boyd, 23, and her new boyfriend.

The court was told that, less than three weeks later, Cunningham delivered a blow of such force to the toddler’s stomach that it ruptured his intestine, leading to his death from peritonitis. A post-mortem examination also noted up to 40 other injuries including bruises, scratches and four fractured ribs. The boy was 23 months old.

Professor Robert Karachi, a consultant paediatric surgeon, said that the injury was consistent with a child receiving a “massive blow” and Brandon would have been in “severe pain” before he died.

Veronica Boyd, 43, the boy’s grandmother, said that she had called social services on February 25 and told them she and her husband were “not happy about the relationship Heather had got herself into”.

Mrs Boyd said: “My husband phoned social services…and was told by them we had no parental rights. It was social workers that put those children back into that accommodation. Not us.”

The Scottish government has asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education to bring forward its report on measures to protect children in Dundee and publish it three months early. A separate investigation into the circumstances leading to Brandon’s death has been commissioned by the Dundee Children and Young Persons Protection Committee, headed by Peter Wilson, a former Chief Constable of Fife.

Adam Ingram, Scottish Parliament Minister for Children and Early Years, said: “This awful case is a harrowing reminder to us all why child protection measures are so important and it’s crucial that, in light of this case and the public concern it has raised, we get a clear picture of how child protection services are performing as quickly as possible.”

During the trial, it emerged that there was only one bed in Ms Boyd’s flat, which had no sheets or pillows. On March 15 last year, she went out with Cunningham’s sister Ann Margaret to a local shop leaving him to care for Brandon.

During this time, Cunningham admitted shouting at Brandon after he twice climbed on to a window ledge, but claimed that he simply told him to stay in the “naughty spot” as punishment.

The court was told that Cunningham and Ms Boyd later took the sick child to a party. He repeatedly vomited brown liquid, while the adults dranks and smoked cannabis. Ms Boyd refused to call the emergency services. She later left to work as a prostitute and earn more money for heroin.

Charges against Cunningham stated that he seized Brandon, making him stand against a wall or other surface, and applying pressure to his abdomen “by means unknown” the day before he died.

Their was already being monitored by the council’s antisocial behaviour team after repeated complaints from neighbours. Boyd had also failed to attend medical appointments with her son.

Charges that Ms Boyd ill-treated Brandon and that she killed him by failing to get him medical help were dropped last week.