Authorities failed to share concerns over mother who killed baby

A WOMAN beat her baby to death after the authorities failed to share details of “early signs of neglect”, a serious case review has found.

In just 19 days, Nicola Brown broke 17 of her newborn son Jake’s ribs before killing him with blow to the head.

The mother, who was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 14 years and six months in 2016, was able to inflict the injuries despite being under the watch of social and medical services.

A serious case review has now found that information about Jake Long’s parents, including details of alleged domestic abuse, were not widely shared between authorities. It said: “Early signs of neglect were not shared between professionals because no use was made of the current mechanism for doing so. Individual agencies offered support to the parents but this was not coordinated. Red flags were raised at the hospital after Brown had concealed her pregnancy in December 2014.”

The review found staff at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, failed to “adequately convey” their concerns to children’s services, which led to a delay in the assessment of the baby boy and his family. A later, fuller report, including details that Brown had refused to engage with a midwife assessment, her depression and domestic abuse history, led to a social worker being allocated. But just nine days later Jake was dead.

The review found that when the mother and baby were visited at home eight times on dates between his birth on Dec 4 and death on Dec 19, “nothing remarkable was noted”.

The review said during this time “at no point was the imminent risk to the baby apparent” and “professionals conducted their duties appropriately”.

A social services assessment of the family in 2013, after a domestic incident, resulted in “no further action”, but there was “missing information” from police and the GP. The report said support should have been put in place.

Dr Richard John, chairman of the Portsmouth Safeguarding Children’s Board, said: “Our review showed there were no major failings, all the agencies involved responded appropriately ….” But he added: “We have made recommendations for improvements in sharing information between organisations.”