The mother of a young boy with complex needs has called for all special schools to have CCTV after her son was attacked by a teaching assistant. Her 13-year-old son Tobie, from Wolverhampton, is autistic and non-speaking. He was kicked, pushed and had his head held down in the 20 minute assault, and his mother Charlotte said a security camera had picked up the full extent of the attack. "To see that man attack him in a place he thought was safe - it was just horrendous," Charlotte said.
Unfortunately, even with the CCTV, she didn't get justice....
Tobie's attacker, William Kevin Clifford, 61, pleaded guilty to child cruelty at Wolverhampton Crown Court earlier this month and was given a suspended sentence of nine months.
*sighs* You won't believe why....
Passing sentencing, the judge told the court: 'William Kevin Clifford has several mitigating factors and a huge amount of suffering whilst waiting for this case to be concluded, including anxiety, weight gain and the inability to secure any employment.'
He's the real victim here, you see...anyone else would simply say those thing were consequences of his actions, not any sort of mitigation.
"If that security camera had not picked it up, then we would never have known what had happened Tobie,' Charlotte said. "If this could happen in Tobie's school, with a formidable team of staff, it can happen anywhere."
And while the 'pinishment' for it is barely even a slap on the wrist, why would it ever stop happening?
Currently, it is down to the individual school to decide whether it wants CCTV. Campaigners in the past have taken a petition to the Scottish Parliament but their call to make surveillance mandatory was rejected over concerns about the balance between privacy and protection.
Or more likely, concerns about how widespread this behaviour is?
