Following the tragic death of Daniel Pelka leading child abuse lawyer, Peter Garsden, has spoken on BBC news about his latest mandatory reporting campaign.
After the tragic child death of Daniel Pelka, Peter Garsden spoke on BBC News 24 and Radio 5 Live Breakfast programme about how the authorities say they were conned by the parents, yet there were obvious signs of abuse which were missed.
Under USA law, since 1963, it has been made a criminal offence to fail to report abuse. England is one of the only commonwealth countries where it is not yet a breach of criminal law.
Mr Garsden believes that if there had been a mandatory reporting obligation at the time, then it would have been possible to prosecute someone for failure to report signs of the abuse.
The government are resisting attempts to make it contrary to the criminal law. Along with the Survivor’s Trust, Innocence in Danger, NAPAC Mr Garsden is hoping he will be able to interest the government in changing the law as the Children’s and Families Bill goes through Parliament.
Mr Garsden hopes that his appearance might encourage others to help him challenge the government to do the right thing. Anyone wishing to support their campaign can do so by signing the online petition at http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/educationgovuk-introduce-law-requiring-adults-working-with-children-to-report-alleged-abuse-mandatenow.
