Killing of Peter Connelly

Peter Connelly was born on 1 March 2006 in London. His biological father left the family home a few months after his birth, and in November 2006 his mother Tracey Connelly's new boyfriend, Steven Barker, moved into their home. In December 2006, a general practitioner noticed bruises on Peter's face and chest, leading to his mother's arrest and Peter's temporary placement with a family friend; he returned to his mother's care in January 2007. Over subsequent months, Peter was hospitalised twice with injuries including bruising, scratches, and swelling. Connelly was arrested again in May 2007.

In June 2007, a social worker observed marks on Peter and alerted police; a medical examination attributed the bruising to abuse. On 4 June, Peter was again placed with a family friend for safeguarding, but on 25 July 2007 Haringey Council's Children & Young People's Service received legal advice that the threshold for care proceedings had not been met. On 1 August 2007, locum paediatrician Sabah Al-Zayyat examined Peter at St Ann's Hospital; a subsequent post-mortem indicated that serious injuries, including a broken back and broken ribs, likely predated this examination but went undetected. The following day, Connelly was told she would not be prosecuted. On 3 August 2007, Peter was found unresponsive in his cot and was pronounced dead at North Middlesex Hospital. A post-mortem found he had swallowed a tooth after being punched, and had sustained a broken back, broken ribs, mutilated fingertips, and missing fingernails. Police launched a murder investigation and arrested his mother.

At trial, Jason Owen and Steven Barker were found guilty on 11 November 2008 of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person; Tracey Connelly had already pleaded guilty to the same charge. Owen and Connelly were earlier cleared of murder due to insufficient evidence, and a jury found Barker not guilty of murder. In a second trial in April 2009, Barker was found guilty of raping a two-year-old girl who was also on Haringey's child protection register, while Connelly was found not guilty of related child cruelty charges. Sentencing for both trials occurred on 22 May 2009 at the Old Bailey: Connelly received indefinite imprisonment for public protection with a five-year minimum term; Barker received life imprisonment for rape (ten-year minimum) and a concurrent 12-year sentence for his role in Peter's death; Owen received an indefinite sentence with a three-year minimum, later changed on appeal to a fixed six-year term.

The case prompted multiple inquiries, including an internal Haringey Council serious case review, a nationwide review by Lord Laming of his earlier recommendations following the murder of Victoria Climbié, and General Medical Council examinations of two doctors involved in Peter's care. Sharon Shoesmith, head of children's services at Haringey, was removed from her post in December 2008; she later successfully appealed her dismissal at the Court of Appeal in 2011 and was reported in 2013 to have accepted a six-figure payout for unfair dismissal. Council leader George Meehan and councillor Liz Santry also resigned. In March 2012, Peter's biological father, referred to as "KC," was awarded £75,000 in libel damages after a newspaper wrongly identified him as a convicted sex offender.