Harte and Duncan sentenced. ( update 3)

Kimberly Harte and Samuel Duncan, the sadistic child torturers have been sentenced. The BBC reports that Harte got 11 and a half years and Duncan 10 and a half years.

By my inexpert reckoning, based on eligibility for parole after about a third of the sentence, if they say the right things to their social workers they may well be out within four years or so. The psychiatrists and social workers will no doubt argue that Harte and Duncan are not evil but the victim of their own circumstances and, as such, require only behavioural adjustment before they can be safely returned to society. Just one more example of why so much evil abounds in our society.

The Sun also has a report.

Update 1: the Willsden and Brent Times (local press) focuses on the judge's remarks.

Update 2: 9/2/07.

The Independent examines the serious failures of social services to protect the child, despite some 20 visits to the family. I doubt Westminster Council's "serious case review" will ever see the light of public scrutiny, unless it is leaked.

Update 3: 9/2/07 @ 16:00

To my surprise, Westminster Council has released statements by Ron Lock , who conducted the independent case review and by the Westminster Local Safeguarding Children Board. An executive summary of the Lock review is also available for download as a Word/Open Office file. In summary, all concerned got it badly wrong in thinking Duncan was safe with children because he had completed a behavioural modification course called the Domestic Violence Intervention Programme. Unbelievable.

Update 4: 10/2/07

Looking at the BBC's artist's drawing of Harte and Duncan, it occurs to me that nobody seems have asked one particular question: was the social workers' decisions, to return the child to the parents and to leave her there, in any way influenced by multicultural considerations? Maybe not, but the question needs to asked and answered.

Tags: Samuel Ducan, Kimberly Harte, Child protection.