Police force referred itself to watchdog after toddler found 'starved to death next to dad's body'
18.01.2024 - 09:05
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A police force has referred itself to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after a toddler was found dead next to his father’s body. Two-year-old Bronson Battersby was found beside his dad Kenneth, 60, who had died following a heart attack in his flat in Skegness, The Sun newspaper reported.
On two separate occasions a Lincolnshire County Council social worker contacted Lincolnshire Police after they got no answer when they tried knocking on the door of Mr Battersby’s home. A spokesman for the county council confirmed the social worker communicated with Mr Battersby on December 27 and arranged to visit on January 2.
When there was no response during that January visit, the social worker “made inquiries at other addresses where the child could be” and contacted the police. They were contacted again when a second unannounced visit on January 4 also went unanswered.
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Days later on January 9, the social worker was let into the property by the landlord, where Mr Battersby and his son were found dead. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is assessing what action to take.
The boy’s mother Sarah Piesse, 43, told The Sun her son had starved to death after his father died and blamed social services for not doing more to help them. She said: “If social services had done their job Bronson would still be alive.
“But they didn’t do anything. I can’t believe it. They can’t let them get away with this. They think Kenneth died no earlier than December 29.
“It means if the social worker had pushed to get in when she got no reply on January 2 then Bronson would still have been alive.”
Heather Sandy, executive director for