Silence Over Baby Aaron’s Social Worker

Swansea Council is refusing to discuss the outcome of possible disciplinary action against a social worker involved in the case of murdered baby Aaron Gilbert.The 13-month-old baby died after being treated like a punchbag by hard-drinking brute Andrew Lloyd, who left him with 50 sickening injuries to his battered body.

He is now serving 24 years behind bars.

Swansea Council says all the agencies who dealt with Aaron, Andrew Lloyd and his mum, Rebecca Lewis, are “learning the lessons from this case”.

But they will not say publicly what action, if any, has been taken against one of the social workers in the case.

Swansea Council’s social services department received an anonymous call raising concerns for the baby’s safety on April 15, 2005.

The social worker, who has not been named, failed to class the call as a child protection case and instead wrote to Lewis asking her to come into the office for an interview on May 5. She did not attend, and Aaron died the following morning.

A report by Swansea’s Safeguarding Children Board, which looked into Aaron’s death, highlighted the response of the social worker as one of a number of factors in the run-up to the murder.

The council has previously said the female social worker is no longer on frontline duties.

A Swansea Council spokeswoman said: “The serious case review into Aaron’s death at the hands of Andrew Lloyd made a number of recommendations for each of the agencies to strengthen safeguards to identify vulnerable children and individuals who pose a risk.

“As part of the serious case review process, the Swansea Safeguarding Children Board is charting the process of all the agencies involved against the wide-ranging recommendations in the report.

“This multi-agency action has been reported to the Assembly.

“For its part, Swansea Council Social Services has responded actively and positively to the recommendations in the report relating to its services and is in the process of addressing each recommendation.”

However, she added: “It would be inappropriate to discuss staff disciplinary matters at this time.”