School ‘covered up’ failings over Shanay death
A PRIMARY school headteacher “fabricated” a letter to cover up internal failings that contributed to the death of seven-year-old Shanay Walker, an inquest has heard.
Peter Smalley, the former headmaster at Southglade Primary School, Nottingham, and Laura Shreeves, a learning mentor, “recreated” evidence following Shanay’s death in a bid to deflect attention away from themselves.
News of the schoolgirl’s death made national headlines in 2014, after a fatal brain haemorrhage led police to expose the extent of the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her aunt Kay-Ann Morris and grandmother Juanila Smikle, who were jailed for eight and four years respectively for child cruelty.
A subsequent post-mortem examination also revealed that Shanay, who had been sent to live with Morris after her mother, Leanne Walker, suffered post-natal depression, had more than 50 injuries at the time of her death.
Yesterday, the inquest heard how Smalley and Shreeves had attempted to escape any criticism by falsifying a safeguarding document that had earlier been lost by Shanay’s teacher – in a “self-serving” act that coroner Mairin Casey said had undermined the child’s safety.
The inquest heard that prior to Shanay’s death, Sm- alley had engaged in a “quite deliberate” policy of appeasement, which saw teachers who raised concerns over her safety “silenced”.
In total, 10 individual safeguarding referrals were made about Shanay by other members of staff at the school, but the concerns surrounding the child’s safety were never passed on to the relevant authorities.
Ms Casey added that Shanay had attended school on numerous occasions bearing cuts, bruises and even a burn. “It was quite deliberate to have a policy of appeasement towards Kay-Ann Morris over the safety of Shanay and to silence the teachers who knew her best,” Ms Casey said. She added that safeguarding procedures had not been adhered to.
She ordered that agencies, including Ofsted, the General Teaching Council and Nottingham City Council, be made aware of the “gravity” of the two teachers’ failings.
Delivering a narrative verdict, Ms Casey told Leanne Walker, Shanay’s mother, who attended the inquest, that her daughter had been the victim of “sustained serious physical and emotional abuse” prior to her death.
“During the 48 hours before she died she was subjected to horrific violence resulting in multiple internal and external injuries, dying as a result of an injury to her brain cause by a blunt instrument, which on the balance of probabilities I find was an inflicted non-accidental injury,” she added.
Nottingham City Council said further action would be taken after new evidence emerged at the inquest. Southglade Primary School said that safeguarding children was now at the “heart” of the school’s objectives.