Social services and the police let Lola James be tortured and killed by Kyle Bevan & Sinead James. The killers were known to the police and social services, and they did everything they could to enable Kyle Bevan & Sinead James to torture and kill Lola James. Rather than accept their mistakes, social services and Pembrokeshire County Council have continued to make excuses for causing Lola James’ prolonged and painful death.
Social services and the police are found to be partially responsible for the death of Lola James, who was tortured and killed by her mother and stepfather by an Independent review.
An independent review has revealed many lost opportunities to safeguard a Welsh toddler slaughtered by her stepfather four years ago.
Claiming she had fallen down the stairs, her mother’s boyfriend had violently attacked Lola James, who passed away in July 2020, in her Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire home.
Killing Lola in July last year resulted in a life sentence (not really life, he will be out soon) for 32-year-old Kyle Bevan of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.
Also of Haverfordwest, her mother, Sinead James, 31, was found guilty of causing and letting the child die and sentenced to only six years.
The judge believed that Lola’s mother was asleep when the small daughter suffered the injuries leading to her death but that she was aware Kyle Bevan had been mistreating Lola “yet did nothing” to protect her.
The Mid and West Wales Safeguarding Children Board’s child practice evaluation revealed many shortcomings, including closed reports devoid of meaningful detail, overworked staff members, and skipped visits when they ought to have been taken.
According to the paper, Kyle Bevan attacked Lola violently on the evening of July 16, 2020, and continued doing so into the morning.
The mother had claimed on the phone to 999 that Lola had fallen but the ambulance personnel expressed concerns about the injuries not matching the “accident”.
Lola James arrived at the nearby hospital and was subsequently declared brain dead.
Police have known Kyle Bevan since at least March 2019 for domestic problems involving his mother, who reported to the court he had an “anger problem.”
A health visitor to Lola’s house reported in January 2020 that the mother, Sinead James, found her daughter demanding and that at past visits, she was unwashed, with black, dirt-covered feet.
Although the health visitor turned in a multiagency referral form to bring in social services, the evaluation revealed several “missed opportunities” to schedule extra home visits, therefore enabling Lola’s well-being to be confirmed.
Those visits may have also revealed the state of the house, which “would (on its own) have raised child protection concerns,”.
Children’s Services published a report on Lola that the review attacked as lacking in information and analysis.
The board claimed a report dated February 2020 had been generated and closed by a team manager in March of that year. Still, it was soon discovered the designated social worker had not completed the evaluation.
With the team “strung under the pressure of the relentless workload,” the social worker named had been on sick leave.
She informed the review board that, as it was not common practice, she had not expected her supervisor to close her assessment while she was off.
Lola’s case closure was deemed “not appropriate” in the evaluation.
Said: “This is not a practice that children’s services at the time, or to date, condoned.
“The consequence of what happened in this case is that children’s services did not properly assess (Lola’s) needs, as required.”
Lola’s father had also not been contacted by social workers or advised by police of events at the house.
Had he known, she could have been relocated within his “bubble” throughout the epidemic.
The report states that Lola’s death could have been avoided if social services had not closed cases or more health visits had been conducted.
The report included eleven action recommendations and seven learning points for development to stop more deaths.
Among the advised actions are guarantees of sufficient workforce levels and improved agency information exchange.
“Pembrokeshire County Council would first want to convey their sincerest condolences to the family of Lola James and to all those who have been affected by her murder over four years ago,” cabinet member for social care and safety, Tessa Hodgson said.
She said the study allowed the authority to consider its policies and grow from the report’s conclusions.
She argued that with a social care improvement board set up, an action plan addressing the problems was already being followed.
“We also hope that the report will help to widen ongoing learning and improvement about several key safeguarding issues across all agencies with safeguarding responsibilities in the West Wales region and beyond,” she said.
“We must seize every chance to enhance our offerings and guarantee that families and children get the best possible support.”
“All agencies involved in this report wish to convey their sincere condolences to the child’s family and to all those who have been affected by the murder of a child in such terrible circumstances,” said a joint statement on behalf of Pembrokeshire County Council, Hywel Dda University Health Board, and Dyfed Powys Police.
We appreciate the dedication and input of all who have participated in the review process; this has been a chance to reflect and distribute learning among all partner organisations and practitioners on a multi-agency basis.
“Every agency values the chances this evaluation offers to examine our work and enhance our methods of safeguarding vulnerable children.
“We hope that the report will also help with more general continuous learning and improvement in connection with several important safeguarding issues across all agencies with safeguarding duties.”
“Lack of focus”
The Children’s Commissioner for Wales said: “We’ve heard that Lola James had a passion for the outdoors and a giggle that filled the room with delight. One of the shortcomings noted in today’s report is a lack of attention to her experiences and needs and a failure to adopt a child-centred approach when she sorely needed the professionals around her to act fast and forcefully to keep her safe.
“Although the suggestions of the study centre on local improvements, for us, the report’s reach is clearly national, and there are national learning lessons from it.
“Some, like poor information-sharing, are recurring concerns in child practice reviews pointing to a flaw in how the learning from individual instances successfully affects national practice.
“We are still very worried about this component of our child protection system; even if we ask time and again for clarity, the truth is that we do not know who is in charge of ensuring agencies are answerable for improving practice or driving systematic changes based on these reviews.
The speed of change also worries me. These studies cover the most horrible acts against children; nevertheless, from our work, we know that several actions from past Child Practice Reviews have not been thoroughly carried out years after they were published.
“We need a better system with unambiguous responsibility, direction, and ownership. There are grave concerns for the Welsh Government about issues I have regularly raised over the past two years that remain unresolved.
” Horrible”
Assistant Director Carl Harris of NSPCC Cymru said: “Lola deserved a happy and healthy future, but it was cruelly stolen away by the horrible actions of Kyle Beven and the failure of her mother, Sinead James, to intervene.
“The results in this report underline once more the need for more investment in children’s services in Wales to give any kid at risk of harm thorough support and to be better able to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
“We ought to give kid protection top national importance. Although the Welsh Government has promised to change children’s social care, more information on timetables, activity, and progress is needed.
“We need institutional improvements to guarantee youngsters like Lola are more safeguarded.
“Everyone worried about a child can call the NSPCC free helpline on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk; we can all look out for the wellbeing of children. Please phone 999 if the youngster is in urgent danger.
If you or anyone you know have been affected by the people highlighted in this article, then please report those individuals to the Police on 101 (999 if an emergency) or visit their online resources for further details of the options for reporting a crime. You can also make a report at Crimestoppers should you wish to be completely anonymous. There is help available on our support links page.