The 47-year-old was sentenced to 12 years for his part in the baby’s death (Picture: PA)
Steven Barker, who tortured his stepson to death has made a fresh bid for parole which could see him freed from prison in a matter of months if successful.
Barker, 47, was arrested for his part in the death of 17-month-old baby Peter Connelly in 2007, who died after sustaining more than 50 injuries in a bloodstained cot.
The case of Baby P, who would have been 18 this year, received nationwide attention, however recent data has shown that since his death there have been 884 similar child deaths.
Steven Barker, who is a neo-Nazi that ‘taught his children to greet him with a Nazi salute’, had also received a concurrent sentence for the rape of a two-year girl, reports the Daily Mail.
The former Haringey social worker who warned of failings told the Mirror that ‘Barker has never shown any remorse and has no shame. This is outrageous.
‘It was prolonged and systematic abuse. I watched him in court. I warned something like that would happen in Haringey’
‘How can anybody like this return to society when they have carried out the most heinous crime against the most vulnerable in society? It is deeply shocking to think he could be released.
‘Rehabilitation for him will not work. Life should mean life for child killers. Baby Peter’s life was taken away, so his liberty should as well.’
Barker was living with Baby P and the infant’s three sisters in North London (Credits: PA)
Barker, who has now made his fifth bid for freedom, was denied parole in 2021 after the board was told by psychiatrists and officials that he was a ‘paedophilic torturer’ and had refused to engage in treatment programmes for his violence and sexual offences.
Tracey Connelly, Baby P’s mother, was also jailed in 2009 for a minimum of five years for her part in covering up the abuse her child faced, but was released in 2022.
Connelly had previously been released in 2013, but was recalled in 2015 for selling naked photos of herself, which breached her licence conditions by ‘developing intimate relationships online’.
After her release, she reportedly befriended another killer mum, Helen Caudwell, who choked her three-year-old with a pyjama case in 2009.
The pair are reportedly living in an unnamed hostel and are ‘mates’.
Tracey Connelly was jailed in 2009 for a minimum of five years for covering up Barker’s abuse, but was released in 2022 (Picture:PA)
A source told the Daily Mail that ‘Tracey very rarely leaves the building. A couple of girls have been warned not to bully her. They’re told not to judge each other’s crimes.
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‘They hate what she did but they just have to live with it. If they say anything, they’re threatened with being recalled to prison.
‘There are normal girls in there along with child killers. They just have to accept it.
‘If Tracey does go out, she wears a mask or puts her hood up. She’s on a tag. But she just spends most of her time lounging around.’
Before his death, Baby P and two of his siblings were on Haringey’s Child Protection Register over fears of child neglect.
The family were visited 60 times by social workers, health visitors and doctors before Baby P’s horrific death.
The parole board have been approached for comment.
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