`'Baby Shaken To DEATH By VIOLENT Father,' After Series Of Blunders By Social Services

by **J The Kidd** Fri Dec 05, 2008 3:36 pm

A five-month-old baby died after her violent parents escaped the
scrutiny of social workers by moving their home just two miles, it was
revealed today.

Alisha Allen was shaken to death by her father three months after
her family switched from the supervision of one group of social workers
to another.

The two-mile move meant that the baby's name disappeared from the child protection register that lists children at risk of harm.

An inquiry report said that when her parents moved from Penshaw on
Wearside - in the area of Sunderland social workers - to Bournmoor in
County Durham - watched over by Durham social workers - Alisha's case
was downgraded so that she was regarded as merely 'in need'.

Alisha's father Gary Allen, 26, was sentenced in September to five
years in jail for manslaughter after telling Newcastle Crown Court that
he lost his temper with the baby.

Her mother, Claire Morton, 31, was given a 12-month suspended sentence for causing or allowing the death of a child.

Judge David Hodson said as he sentenced the pair: 'This case, sadly, is
yet another example of the tragic death of a baby in circumstances
where there have been undoubted failings within two social services
departments.'

The serious case review report yesterday said there was poor assessment, planning and information sharing by agencies involved.

He believed the baby was aggressive, and both parents said at their
trial that Alisha would deliberately scream, pull her mother's ears,
and headbutt her.

They thought the baby knew better than to do that with her father.

Alisha was shaken to death after she woke her father up on a Sunday morning.

Since the baby's death Morton has had another child by Allen, which has
been taken into care. She is shortly due to give birth to a child by
another man.