
*Please be aware that this post (as you may guess from the title) is going to be a very harrowing and disturbing one. A lot of the details that I will be sharing will be very tough to read. I will, as always, try to be as sensitive as I can be without taking away the facts of the case. Sharing this story, although very difficult, is very important because changes need to be continually made to ensure the safety of all children*
To say that this was one of the most difficult and disturbing cases that I have ever covered, is an understatement. Like so many, I was already aware of some of the details of the heartbreaking story of ''Baby P'' as Peter was known then (I think it's important to say this little angle's name: Peter Connelly) and those details were too much to take as it was. I was requested to talk about this case and asked what my view on what a suitable punishment would be for these murderers. Well my feelings on this are clear, without missing a beat I instantly thought 'Death Penalty'. There are those out there who would disagree, who are against the death penalty and although it's not a law in this country anymore, I wouldn't have an issue with it being brought back for very serous cases such as the one I'm going to share with you in this post.
As mentioned at the start, I will be sharing some disturbing details and even though my aim is to be as gentle with what I say, this case is so horrendous that there is no possible way that I can make any of these sickening details more palatable because they simply can't be. I hope you can bare with me in this and if you're unfamiliar with the case then maybe by the end of this post you will understand my feelings in regards to the death penalty for these three creatures.
So, there is no way to begin this story on a positive note because from the very beginning this gorgeous little boy didn't stand a chance at a decent life. Peter came into the world on the 1st of March 2006 to a ''mother'' who did not deserve him. He was born in London, England and looked like a little cherub with his blond hair, blue eyes and cheeky little face. He was adorable and anyone in their right mind would have been over the moon to have such a beautiful little boy come into their life. Tracey Connelly on the other hand was a total wreck of a person, Peter was her fourth child and she'd been brought up in a difficult home life with an alcoholic mother who also took drugs in front of her and her brother. Violent fights between Tracey's mother Mary and stepfather, Gary, were commonplace and it was no surprise that Tracey was going to face difficulties when she did leave home.
It was no surprise that she would grow up with a lot of difficulties in terms of self esteem and self confidence, she was really self-conscious about her weight and was often looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. At the age of just 16 she met a man who was 33 years old, they would go on to have three daughters together. Despite the disturbing age gap, the relationship, if you could call it that, was not a violent one and the older man seemed to have treated her with respect and was noted as being a good father. this relationship was not to last though because not long after Peter was born, Tracey broke up with the father of her children because she became fixated with a man named Steven Barker. Unknown to a lot of people at the time, Steven was quite a disturbing individual having a bit of a violent streak in him, he was known to be aggressive, had an obsession with Nazis, was said to have had a low IQ and had tortured animals in the past. His whole demeanour was creepy but from the moment she first met him in a local bar, that was it, she couldn't wait to move him in.
Steven's brother Jason was always hanging around the house, he'd stay over some nights and it got to the point where it was decided that he should just move in. Jason was a father of four children himself but he was also a bad egg. He also moved in with three of his four children after leaving his wife for a 15 year old girl who also moved into the house. As well as run-ins with the law, it was known that he'd started his criminal activities as young as 12 years old when he sexually assaulted an 11 year old girl. Jason even joined his brother in this disturbing obsession with Nazis and the evil pair had even committed crimes together in the past, attacking elderly people and theft amongst other disturbing things. So these two horrific individuals along with the 15 year old girl and Jason's kids, were now living in the house where other vulnerable children were. It sounds like it was a nightmare set-up and that's exactly what it turned out to be.
It's unclear when the abuse towards Peter started but it certainly wasn't long because within a month of them moving in a few bruises began to appear on Peter's body but Tracey was trying to play it off as a young child just having silly accidents, all she was interested in was Steven who she was completely infatuated with. There was clear abuse going on in that home and poor Peter was the target. Apparently there was no evidence that any of the other children came to any harm at that time (although later it was to be revealed that Peter's sisters was also a victim of abuse) but Tracey was very vocal on social media about her 'love' for Steven even going so far as to brag about their non-stop sex sessions.
So Tracey was well aware of the abuse that was going on with Peter which was now becoming a daily occurrence, she either chose to turn a blind eye to it or engaged in some of the abuse herself. Authorities were involved and social workers were back and forth at the house but if you know much about the social services in the UK from my previous posts or what you've heard before, they're a bit of a disgrace. I've seen for myself with close family members how incompetent Social Services in the UK can be, they either make a situation worse or they do nothing at all. I was once offered the opportunity to train to be a social worker and I turned it down, it wasn't something I was interested in, the whole black and white thinking plus I've yet to have my mind changed in regards to them, I was offered a two year, part-time course to become a social worker, I refused to do it and I was also shocked that a two year part-time course was all it took to be qualified. I've known of cases where children have been in abusive situations and social workers have been aware and done nothing about it so my attitude towards them is not a positive one.
Social workers were back and forth regularly at the Connelly household and they noted how dirty and unkempt the house was. They also noted that Tracey didn't appear to have much interest in Peter and spent the majority of the time glued to her phone, TV or laptop. Tracey was never one to make an effort with her appearance and this was also noted. I know we should never judge a book by it's cover in some cases but when it comes to children I think that the personal hygiene and self-grooming of the parents is very important because let's face it, if they can't be bothered to look after themselves properly (and I don't mean all dolled up like me, I mean a comb through the hair, brushed teeth, clean set of clothes etc) how are they going to look after a child. I think a Mother's hygiene and way of dressing is a good indication of mental health too. For example, authorities noted that the house and Tracey looked terrible and everything smelled of urine, that should raise alarms as well as the lack of interest from Tracey to Peter.
As well as authorities knowing the conditions in which Peter was forced to live in, a number of visits to healthcare 'professionals' didn't fare better either. Despite being examined a number of times for bruises and injuries, Tracey would tell people that Peter fell down the stairs or ran into something, again notes would be made and that would be that. It makes you feel sick to your stomach at the number of missed opportunities for this child to be saved just through sheer laziness, I'm not a healthcare professional but even I would be the first to do everything in my power to remove all of those children from that situation. Maybe that's another reason why I couldn't be a social worker because I would constantly break the rules to ensure a child was safe. Some people will say that Tracey was an expert at manipulating medical professionals but I don't buy it. The number of times that Peter had been seen, the past history of this little boy's short life would have raised a lot of red flags together with the state of his living conditions and that of his mother. The police themselves later described Tracey as ''a morbidly obese slob''
Peter continued to suffer in that household until an incident where he was temporarily removed from Tracey's care and she was arrested. They all knew that Peter was being abused and information was passed back and forth from one department to the another but shockingly despite alarming concerns and a stack of evidence to prove that this child was in danger, Peter was sent back to Tracey and the house of hell.
The heartbreaking and inevitable day came when on the morning of the 3rd of August 2007, Peter sadly passed away, his little body couldn't take any more and to have survived as long as he did in that household is nothing short of a miracle and shows just what a little fighter he was. An ambulance was called to the house of hell and paramedics were shocked at the conditions in which they were met with. The place looked and stank horrendous, there was feces all over the floor, Nazi materials, noticeable insects and what looked like fleas around the house and an even more disturbing sight of a small dead animal on a table, noted to be a rabbit that had been dismembered. Kids were living in this horrific and disgusting mess. The paramedics were there to get Peter to take him to the hospital because at that point they didn't know what sort of condition he was in.
It was a shocking sight for seasoned paramedics, a sight none of them will ever forget because the state of the house was one thing but the conditions in which they found this poor little boy was something that you just couldn't bare to describe. It was clear he was either deceased or dying, this poor child was utterly destroyed and they tried so hard to save him. The paramedics didn't give up and carried on, all the way even whilst he was in the ambulance, but it was no use, Peter was gone and to be honest....free! Free of the endless pain and suffering, free of nobody doing a damn thing to help this poor child. The mountain of evidence of injuries, the state of the house, the state of Tracey, the numerous 'professionals' who examined him, the number of visits by social services, the endless visits to hospitals, when was someone going to to finally do something? He was just a little baby, he couldn't survive that hell for much longer, none of us as adults could either.
The autopsy was horrific, Peter's body had endured months and months of hell for the majority of his 17 months on this earth. His little body was frightening to look at and the photographs taken at his autopsy for evidence were deemed too disturbing to view that some evidence was shown as a diagram drawing instead.
His injuries were as follows (please be aware that this makes for disturbing reading):
- He was very malnourished, he had been punched with such force that he swallowed his tooth. The tooth was later found in his stomach. His gums had signs of injury and bleeding and the tip of his tongue was missing.
- There were numerous injuries to his head on the scalp, skull and internally. Part of his ear looked like it had been ripped off.
- His fingernails and toenails were partially black with signs that a few of them had been ripped off. Some skin was also missing from his fingers.
- Injuries and bruising to his chest suggested that Peter had been regularly held very tightly or squeezed with force in this area. He also had broken ribs.
- Some skin on his nose was missing.
- Cigarette burn marks were also found on his body.
- His back was broken and there was considerable bleeding around his spine.
The autopsy showed that there was not one area of Peter's body that did not have an injury. His cause of death was determined to be due to the severe spinal injury which caused him to bleed internally in combination with all he had endured up to that point.
The injuries noted totaled at 50 and the condition in which Peter's body was in, coroner's likened it to that of a car crash victim.
Authorities had been in contact with Tracey just days before Peter had died, he'd even seen a Doctor who reportedly found nothing wrong with him despite Peter having broken ribs. All this Doctor had to say was that Peter was fine and that he seemed to be a bit cranky. Peter's biological father had seen him just days before his death and his response was pathetic too, apparently himself and his mother were concerned about the marks on Peter's body and the state that the poor child was in but they chose to do absolutely nothing about it because their attitude was that the hospital or someone else would be dealing with the matter. I don't know how any of these people sleep at night.
If it was anybody else's child you would contact authorities because the child is clearly going through hell and is in danger, if it's your own son, and you were Peter's father, you'd go to that house and bang the door down, kidnap him, get the police to their door, anything, you wouldn't just sit there and expect someone else to deal with it. Poor Peter never stood a chance with any of this lot and just to add here, Peter's father may not have been involved in the abuse but he sat back and failed to act, he had concerns, he knew what kind of person Tracey, was he wasn't blind, he could see what was going on but chose to do nothing, it's a disgrace in my book. Maybe he was scared of the two brothers? whatever the reason there's no excuse. Peter was failed by everyone.
Peter's father actually got a pay out of £74,000 from a magazine some time later because they falsely described him in an article as a 'convicted paedophile'.
The police wasted no time in arresting Tracey, who was now pregnant and the brothers were nowhere to be seen. They went on the run for about 11 days but were eventually found and arrested. They all pleaded not guilty to murder but Tracey did plead guilty to the charge of causing or allowing the death to have occurred. At one point James was claiming that he was completely innocent and that he walked into Peter's room to find Steven stood over the cot looking out of breath and sweating profusely whilst Peter looked lifeless. Steven denied this. All three of them were blaming each other at this point.
When the time for trial came around, all three were still claiming that they did not murder Peter. For some unbelievable reason, the murder charges against the brothers were dropped because apparently there wasn't enough evidence to prove they had intentionally murdered Peter despite the mountain of evidence. They were all found guilty for causing or allowing the death of Peter.

In 2008 Tracey and Steven were back in court again but this time it was involving another case where another child was the victim. They had been accused of the sexual assault of a two year old girl who's identity was not revealed but it turned out that this poor child was indeed living at the house of hell with these three people. The victim was possibly Tracey's daughter, this horrible abuse (which had happened a number of times and before Peter's death) continued to take place in Tracey's bedroom and Tracey was fully aware of it and had apparently told Steven to stop, he wouldn't. He's a sick monster but is she the mother from hell or is she the mother from hell? Absolutely horrendous!
Both trials were sentenced together on the 22nd of May 2009 and the sentences were as follows: Tracey Connelly received an indefinite imprisonment for public protection, subject to a minimum of five years. Steven Barker was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 10 years for the horrendous sexual assaults of the two year old girl. He also received a pathetic 12 year sentence for the death of Peter. Steven's brother James received a pathetic three years. Not surprisingly the sentences caused absolute outrage and the three monsters actually had the sickening audacity to appeal them. It didn't work out for them though especially for James Owen, Steven's brother who ended up having his sentence doubled.
This case was one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking to have ever occurred in British history. We thought that things had improved with things in place for keeping our children safe and protected especially since the horrifying case of little Victoria Climbie. Victoria was murdered by her great-aunt and her great-aunt's boyfriend after being subjected to constant horrendous abuse. Victoria died in 2000 and it was revealed that there were numerous times where she could have been saved had authorities stepped in and done their jobs properly. An inquiry into this case was supposed to have resulted in tougher procedures and child safety measures but as we see with Peter and the most recent case of the horrific torture and murder of 10 year old Sara Sharif (by her own father after authorities ignored evidence and constant reports for fear of being branded racist) nothing has changed, our children are still being let down by our broken system.
Tracey Connelly was released from prison in 2013 but soon ended up back behind bars after she had breached her bail conditions by apparently selling naked photographs of herself. I know what you're thinking, same thing as I am....who would buy them? On the 7th of July 2022 she was given parole again but I'm pleased to say that she was sent back to prison in September 2024 and that's where she currently is and I hope they keep her there. Steven Barker is still serving his sentences and refuses to take part in any treatment programs or any sort of counselling, he has never shown any remorse, none of them have. James was released and is apparently living under another name for his own protection.
If you have made it this far in the post, I thank you so much for getting through this with me. The case of Peter Connelly who was known for a long time as ''Baby P'', was one that none of us will ever forget. The British public took Peter to their hearts and I'm sure anyone reading this, no matter what country you are currently in, will no doubt do the same. Peter deserved better, so did the other children in that house of hell and the little girl who was also abused. Victoria and Sara deserved better, all these beautiful children who've been victims of these types of monsters, deserved better.
After Peter's death various inquiries took place and various people were questioned or fired and the usual line of being told that improvements were going to be made so that it would never happen again but as I mentioned before, children are still being let down badly by the broken system in the UK.
RIP Peter, Victoria & Sara, you will never be forgotten x
Further reading & Sources:
- Baby P Case: Article | BBC News
- Baby P Case: Article | The Guardian
- Timeline of Baby P Case | BBC News
- Tracey Connelly: Article | BBC News
- The Story of Baby P | Book by Ray Jones
- Learning From Baby P | Book by Sharon Shoesmith
- Victoria Climbie | Wikipedia
- The Victoria Climbie Inquiry | Gov.UK
Special shout out to Newspapers.com by Ancestry for giving access to their amazing catalogue of Newpapers both past and present. This has been invaluable to my research. Thank you! (be sure to check them out too)
Thank you for taking the time to read my latest post, I welcome your thoughts as always, either below in the comments or in confidence at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com
I hope you will join me in the next post, in the meantime I hope to see you elsewhere on my socials
Stay safe & take care x
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