Baby P’s mother Tracey Connelly will be released from prison

Image source, ITV News Image caption,

Peter Connelly died after months of abuse

The mother of Baby P could be released from prison within weeks after the Parole Board rejected a government challenge against its ruling.

Tracey Connolly was jailed in 2009 after admitting causing or allowing the death of 17-month-old son Peter at home in Tottenham, north London, in 2007.

Known publicly as Baby P, he had suffered more than 50 injuries.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the decision and said the Parole Board needed an “overhaul”.

Mr Raab, who had asked the Parole Board to reconsider its decision made in March, described the actions of Connelly, now aged 40, as “pure evil”.

“The decision to release her demonstrates why the parole board needs a fundamental overhaul, including a ministerial check for the most serious offenders, so that it serves and protects the public,” he said.

Image source, Met Police Image caption,

Tracey Connelly admitted causing or allowing the death of her 17-month-old son

Connelly’s review by the Parole Board in March was her fourth since she was jailed for a minimum of five years in 2009.

She had been let out on licence in 2013 but was recalled to prison in 2015 for breaching her parole conditions.

The Parole Board had also considered her case in 2015, 2017 and 2019 but refused to release her or move her to an open prison.

Following the board’s decision in March that Connelly should be released, Mr Raab had asked it to re-examine its ruling under the so-called reconsideration mechanism.

‘Not irrational’

But the board has now said that application has been rejected and the original decision upheld.

A Parole Board spokesman said in a statement: “Following the reconsideration application from the secretary of state, a judge has ruled that the decision made by independent Parole Board members to release was not irrational, as stated in the reconsideration application, and the original decision is upheld.”

Connelly will be subject to restrictions on her movements, activities and who she contacts, and faces 20 extra licence conditions.

They include living at a specified address, wearing an electronic tag, adhering to a curfew and having to disclose her relationships.

Her use of the internet and a phone will be monitored, and she has been told she cannot go to certain places to “avoid contact with victims and to protect children”.

Baby P died on 3 August 2007 at the hands of his mother as well as her boyfriend, Steven Barker, and their lodger Jason Owen, who was Barker’s brother.

Barker was jailed for life with a minimum term of 10 years for raping a two-year-old girl and given a 12-year term to run concurrently over his role in his death.

Owen got an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of three years, later increased to a fixed six-year term.

Over the final eight months of his life, Baby P received 60 visits from social workers, police and health professionals and was on the at-risk register.

A series of reviews identified missed opportunities when officials could have saved the toddler’s life if they had acted properly on the warning signs.

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