There was probably sufficient evidence to justify taking Baby P into care days before he was brutally killed, council lawyers at the centre of the case have privately admitted, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
The admission contradicts the legal advice given to social workers a week before the toddler died that proceedings to remove him from his family could not go ahead because the risk "threshold" to trigger an application to take him into care had not been crossed.
Council lawyers later told an independent serious case review inquiry investigating the tragedy that the advice, given by a locum lawyer inexperienced in child protection, was flawed and not clearly expressed.
The revelations shed fresh light on the death of Baby Peter, who was found dead on 3 August 2007 after suffering horrific injuries, including a cracked spine and bruising to his face and body. His mother and her lover were convicted in November of causing his death. They will be sentenced today.
The details of the legal advice were set out in a serious case review into the death completed in 2008. But this original report was judged inadequate by ministers. A revised report by the new head of Haringey's local safeguarding children board, Graham Badman, will be released today. It is expected to say that the care threshold adopted by Haringey officials was too high. It will also criticise the lack of urgency and thoroughness of professionals involved in the case.
Documents seen by the Guardian show that a legal meeting on Baby Peter, who was on Haringey's child protection register, had been sought by police and social workers on 4 June 2007, three days after the discovery by social workers of marks and bruises to the boy's face. But administrative errors and workload pressures meant that the meeting did not take place for another for seven weeks.
When it was finally convened, the lawyer verbally advised safeguarding officers that the threshold was not met for legal proceedings. The formal written memorandum to social workers confirming this advice was, by bitter coincidence, prepared only on the morning of Peter's death.
Asked by the original serious case review inquiry to explain its actions, the legal department admitted that, in hindsight, it was "likely that the threshold criteria were met at the time [of the legal planning meeting]".
It justified the lawyer's decision not to apply for care proceedings on the grounds that it "may have not been appropriate" to do so "if there were adequate safeguards in place to protect [Baby Peter] pending the outcome of further investigations".
Haringey's legal department admitted that there had been serious shortcomings in its conduct of the case. The original serious case review report is understood to have noted that legal services had "difficulty commenting on the appropriateness of [the lawyer's] advice" because of "insufficient recording of the legal planning meeting".
Haringey legal services told the inquiry that it was "preferable" to ensure this kind of legal advice came from experienced child protection lawyers but this had not always been possible because of "recruitment difficulties".
The revelations came as Peter's mother apologised for the first time for failing to protect a child she called "my baby boy" from the violence meted out to him over several months by her live-in boyfriend.
In a handwritten letter presented at the last minute to an Old Bailey judge on the eve of her sentencing today, the 27-year- old mother, who cannot be named, asked for forgiveness. She has admitted causing or allowing her son's death. "I except [sic] I failed my son Peter for which I pleaded guilty," she wrote. "By not being fully open with the social workers I stopped them from being able to do a full job. As a direct result of this my son got hurt and sadly lost his short life. I am never going to see my lovely son grow into the lovely sweet man I believe he would have been. I have lost all I hold dear to me, now every day of my life is full of guilt and trying to come to terms with my failure as a mother."
The letter was written in black ballpoint pen on paper torn from an exercise book and submitted to the judge by the mother in a last-minute plea for leniency.
"I can only hope and pray my family and ex-husband included can one day forgive my mistakes however I can never forgive myself for my shortcomings. I am truly sorry."
It is the only expression of remorse she has made since being arrested after the death of her only son. Peter's lifeless body was found in his blood-splattered cot on 3 August 2007. He had suffered more than 50, injuries despite 60 visits from social workers.
He was gasping for breath in the last hours of his life but neither his mother nor her boyfriend took him to hospital or called a doctor.
The mother sat in the dock playing with her hair yesterday as her child's horrific injuries were rehearsed again in advance of her sentencing and that of her 32-year-old boyfriend and another man, Jason Owens, 37, both of whom were convicted last November of causing or allowing Peter's death. The mother's boyfriend will also be sentenced for the rape of another child who was on the council's child protection register.
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