Ex boss of tragic Finley council advising others on how to protect kids
Chief gets charity job after tot killing
A TOWN hall boss whose department was responsible for monitoring a baby murdered by his parents has found a new job – giving child protection advice.
Jane Parfrement was director of children’s services at Derbyshire County Council when Finley Boden was killed.
Finley was 10 months old when he died in his evil drug addict parents’ filthy home with 130 injuries on Christmas Day 2020.
They were convicted of murder two weeks ago in one of the most harrowing cases police have ever seen. And social workers are being probed about what chances were missed to save Finley.
Meanwhile, Mrs Parfrement has left her £129,000-a-year council post to advise local authorities about child protection.
In October 2021 she became chief executive of The Staff College, an organisation set up to improve council leadership and children’s services.
Her former workplace is being probed by a serious case review into Finley’s death. His dad
Stephen Boden, 30, and mum Shannon Marsden, 22, face life in jail after a six-month trial at Derby Crown Court.
During the case, it emerged that social workers made Finley the subject of a child protection plan before he was even born.
Soon after his birth in February 2020 he went into care because of his parents’ heavy cannabis use, squalid home, and the risk of domestic violence.
But, after a family court ruling, he was
returned to their terrace house in
Old Whittington, Chesterfield – described by neighbours as a “pigsty” – in November.
Jurors were told Finley was sent back in an eight-week transition period, despite a social worker recommending six months.
Just 39 days later he was dead after “repeated acts of violence” from his parents, who denied social workers access.
His injuries included 57 fractures, including two to the pelvis possibly caused by kicking or stamping. Burn marks were said to have been caused by “a hot, flat surface” and probably a cigarette lighter.
In one text read to jurors, Boden moaned that the baby had kept him awake and he wanted to “bounce him off the walls”.
The trial heard that the couple smoked so much dope – spending £120 a week on it – that they “worshipped weed in the same way others worship God” and tests even found cannabis in their dead son’s blood. They will be sentenced on May 26.
The Staff College says it “designs and organises professional development opportunities for those in principal and senior leadership positions in local authority children’s services…” It and Mrs Parfrement declined to comment.
The council said: “Once the review has concluded we will be in a position to communicate more fully about this case.”