Babysitters murdered toddler 'under the noses of officials'

ANOTHER council is under scrutiny over a horrific child abuse case after a babysitting couple were found guilty of murdering a three-year-old boy just hours after he was seen by a housing support officer.

Wolverhampton City Council pledged to establish whether lessons could be learned from the murder of Ryan Lovell-Hancox, who was neglected, abused and beaten by Kayley Boleyn and Christopher Taylor.

Boleyn, 19, and Taylor, 25, both face mandatory life sentences after being convicted of murder and child cruelty by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

The couple inflicted more than 70 injuries on Ryan, who died in hospital on Christmas Eve 2008, two days after suffering a fatal brain injury.

Both defendants blamed each other for Ryan's injuries, but jurors convicted the pair of murdering the toddler in an attack at their flat in Bilston, in the West Midlands.

The defendants, who will be sentenced later this year, had been looking after Ryan for almost a month after his mother agreed to pay them to care for him.

Wolverhampton City Council refused to discuss the details of a serious case review into Ryan's death, but the trial of his killers heard he was seen at their bedsit by a housing support officer hours before the attack that led to his death.

The court heard that the officer, who gave Boleyn a lift to a job centre, assumed Ryan was asleep after seeing one of his legs sticking out from under bedding.

It emerged that a child had also been seen by housing offi-cials at the flat on previous occasions.

Council officials confirmed Ryan was not the subject of a child protection plan and was not judged to be "at risk" by childcare professionals who came into contact with him.

It is believed the serious case review is scrutinising social services' contact with Boleyn, as well as the actions of housing support officers working for a charity that helps young people after they leave care.

The murder trial heard that, at the time of the killing, Boleyn was in breach of her tenancy, which stated she should live alone, without pets or children.

Wolverhampton City Council's chief executive, Simon Warren, and its director for children and young people's services, Roy Lockwood, both declined to comment on details of the review.

Mr Lockwood, who is also the chair of the local safeguarding children board, told reporters: "I'd like to express my deep sorrow and regret at the death of Ryan – a tragic and shocking event for his family, his community and the city as a whole.

"The death of a child under these circumstances gives us all pause for thought about whether there was anything we could or should have done to prevent it.

"Ryan was not the subject of a child protection plan. Nonetheless, all the agencies in the city that have a responsibility to protect children are determined to learn what lessons there are to be learned to ensure no child ever dies in such circumstances in our city again."

The four-week criminal trial heard Ryan's mother, Amy Hancox, was paying about 40 a week for Taylor and Boleyn to look after Ryan while she decorated her home.

At the start of the trial, prosecutor Christopher Hotten, QC, said Ryan's mother was struggling to cope with him on her own when she agreed that Boleyn should look after him.

Miss Hancox told the court she had no idea of the catalogue of abuse suffered by Ryan at the defendants' bedsit. She said: "My crime was naivety."

Both defendants initially claimed Ryan had hit his head after falling in the bath, but the court heard they later changed their accounts.