Finley Boden: Social workers who visited baby's home were turned away just 2 days before parents beat him to death
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CHESTERFIELD, DERBYSHIRE: In the wake of the chilling death of 10-month-old baby Finley Boden, who suffered a catalog of 130 "appalling" injuries, including 71 bruises over his body and 57 fractures was reportedly not allowed to be seen by social workers in the days leading to his fatal collapse. Desperate social workers were turned away by father Stephen Boden, 30, just two days before the toddler died on Christmas day 2020 whilst his mother Shannon Marsden, 22, was busy buying drugs.
Boden and Marsden are charged with the murder of 10-month-old Finley, whose unfathomable abuse has struck tears across the nation. Even before the child was born social workers raised concerns over his state of living and his parents' drug usage. Finley was removed immediately from the pair's care days after he was born in February 2020. However, he was returned to them on November, 17, despite evidence of his parents' drug use as late as September 2020, and only 39 days into the couple's care, the child was brutally tortured to death.
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Finley Boden suffered a catalog of 'appalling' injuries leading to his death
On December 23, Boden came to the front door of their Old Whittington home and said the child was asleep because he was "not very well" before closing the door shut in the social worker's face. Subsequently, just two days after the child was placed permanently into Boden and Marsden's care, a social worker during a home visit, noted a 4-centimeter bump on Finley's forehead which the parents blamed on an accident with a toy. Another social worker noted the baby was last seen alive on November 27, asleep on a sofa while his parents listening to music upstairs. The pair had not opened the door forcing the worker to observe the child through the window.
After leaving Finley's home on December 23, the social worker saw Marsden leaving a car after an exchange that looked like a "drug deal." During a trial, the mother explained, "One parent would take care of the children while the other went to collect drugs and vice-versa." On Christmas Eve, Finley was seen alive for the last time as he was out with his parents in Chesterfield before being killed the next day. Authorities revealed the depraved couple broke Finley's pelvis in two with sustained "kicking or stamping" and inflicted burns on his hand, one "from a hot, flat surface" and the other "from a cigarette flame." The inside of Finley's mouth was "torn."
"This is caused by forcing a dummy or a bottle in the mouth and the baby had a "spiral" break to a thigh, while a shin bone break was "consistent with being held by the ankle and gripped and twisted." The child developed pneumonia, endocarditis (inflammation of the heart), and sepsis. He spent his final days in his vomit and feces-stained cot before fatally collapsing into cardiac arrest. Paramedics were called at 2.33 am on Christmas Day and he was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3.45 am. The twisted parents reportedly did not call the emergency service providers for an hour as Boden wanted to smoke cannabis and hide their drugs. In the hours after his death, Boden was heard telling Marsden at the hospital that he was going to sell Finley's pushchair on eBay, later telling police he was trying to "lighten the mood."
Authorities were shattered by the level of injuries discovered
Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive, demanded a child safeguarding practice review, "to provide answers as soon as possible." He said the suffering of Finley, "inflicted by the very people who should have been caring for him" was "harrowing and difficult to comprehend," reported Daily Mail. "The death of a child in such brutal circumstances leaves many of us asking questions and we await the child safeguarding practice review to provide answers as soon as possible," he added. "So that children who are most at risk are protected, it is vital the Government takes forward the changes recommended by previous reviews and experts to transform the child protection system and ensure the different agencies involved are able to work together effectively to focus on children and babies like Finley."
DI Shaw discussing the case said, "Officers went to the house on Holland Road where they lived and they found squalid living conditions, filthy bedding, filthy clothing, rotting food in the kitchen, no environment to bring a child up in, and there were signs of cannabis abuse scattered around the house. But I don't think that prepared us for the level of injury that we discovered when the post-mortem took place. The majority of Finley's bones were fractured in some way and as the investigation progressed, the evidence from some of the experts around the levels of force that had to be used - Finley's bones had to be crushed and twisted with quite some force - eliminated any accidental cause of these injuries."
Dawn Carrington, a child rights expert and abuse survivor, said, "It’s horrifying and unfathomable to me that poor Baby Finley was put back into the hands of his killers by Chesterfield Social Services to suffer such torture and horror, which led to his tragic death." "Not only that but two days before his murder, his father reportedly demonstrated aggressive behaviour towards social services on their final attempt to check on Finley, which was evidently not followed up. Despite there being grave concerns for Finley’s safety he was returned to the care of his depraved abusers." She demanded the Prime Minister instate a new task force to track child abuse. "Without stronger protections, there will be many more Baby Finleys, who are heartbreakingly placed back into the hands of abusers - to either lose their life or suffer continued abuse."