a McDonald’s restaurant-just hours before he was beaten to death by her boyfriend. Kemarni Watson

Birmingham Crown Court jury on Tuesday, which heard evidence of how Kemarni Watson Darby’s fragile body

The number of child cruelty and neglect offences reported to police has soared by 25 per cent in just a year, according to new Freedom of Information requests.... This works out at an average of 72 child cruelty and neglect offences reported to police every day.... “ What we have currently is a system increasingly skewed to crisis intervention, with outcomes for children that continue to be unacceptably poor and costs that continue to rise, ” Josh MacAlister, its author, said....