Report finds safeguarding of 10-month-old baby killed by parents in Chesterfield was 'inadequate'

A safeguarding review has found a 10-month-old baby killed by his parents in Chesterfield less than six weeks after being placed back into their care "should have been one of the most protected children” in Derbyshire.

Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden inflicted 130 injuries on their son Finley, with the pair being convicted of murder last May.

Finley went into cardiac arrest at his home in Old Whittington on Christmas Day 2020.

He had been returned to his parents’ care on November 17th by a family court, despite social services raising concerns over Boden and Marsden's drug use and the state of the family home.

After returning home, Finley suffered what was described in court as 130 ‘appalling injuries’. He also developed conditions including sepsis and pneumonia.

Marsden and Boden were handed life sentences with respective minimum terms of 27 and 29 years at Derby Crown Court.

The Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership has now published the findings of its Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review looking at the circumstances surrounding Finley's death.

It said: "In this instance, a child died as the result of abuse when he should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area."

The review stated that, while Finley's parents were responsible for his death, "professional interventions should have protected him".

It said the "most significant professional decision" was that he should live with his parents and concluded that "the safeguarding environment in which that decision was made had been incrementally weakened by the decisions, actions, circumstances and events which preceded it".

At their sentencing last year, the judge described Marsden and Boden as "persuasive and accomplished liars" who "brutally assaulted" their son.