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We’re going to start today’s newsletter with an absolutely heartbreaking story from Oldham . It’s about the case of a 10-year-old boy called ‘Abdur’, who was so badly neglected by his mum and step-dad he suffered malnourishment, anaemia and scurvy.

The details of Abdur’s life, as revealed in a damning safeguarding review , are appalling. Staff at his school alerted social services with concerns 38 times.

The warning signs included ‘rapid weight loss’ and, in an utterly distressing image, his lunch box being filled with nothing but ‘dry, and on one occasion mouldy, bread and water’.

But social services missed signs of his deterioration. Unbelievably they were in the process of stepping Abdur, who was described as a ‘very likable and delightful child’, down fro

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