The evil stepfather who tortured Baby P to death has made a fresh bid for parole, that if successful would see him free in a matter of months.
Baby P, whose real name was Peter Connelly, was only 17 months old when he was discovered dead in Haringey, North London in August 2007 in a bloodstained cot with more than 50 injuries, including a broken back.
Now, just days after what would have been Baby P’s 18th birthday, his stepfather Steven Barker, 47, who was sentenced to 12 years for his part in the death of the infant has made a fifth bid for freedom.
‘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,’ Nevres Kemal, the former Haringey social worker who warned of failings six months before the tragedy, told the Mirror.
Steven Barker (pictured in 2009), 44, was jailed for 12 years for torturing 17-month-old Peter Connelly to death
Pictured: Peter Connelly, also known as Baby P
Tracey Connelly was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2009 for causing or allowing the death of her 17-month-old son Peter at their home in Tottenham, north London , on August 3, 2007 (pictured in 2013, when she was released on licence before being ordered back to jail)
She continued: ‘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.’
It is understood that the next parole hearing will be in a matter of months.
One source said: ‘Barker is hellbent on being released. He has had a string of hearings so far and will argue he has not caused problems in prison. But the thought of him being released is sickening.’
Barker, a neo-Nazi who taught one of his children to greet him with a Nazi salute, also received a concurrent sentence with a minimum of 10 years for the rape of a two-year girl.
He was denied parole in 2021 after psychiatrists and officials told the board that the paedophilic torturer had refused to engage in treatment programmes to confront his violence and sexual offences.
Jason Owen (pictured), who changed his name after a family row, has a string of convictions for burglaries, arson and assault, and was accused of raping an 11-year-old when he was 13
Tracey Connolly, 41, was pictured out in 2022 weighing over 20 stone
A list of his risk factors included his ‘capacity to become sexually aroused towards very young children’ and ‘not being able to control extreme emotions’.
Despite this case nationwide attention Baby P’s case received, recent data has showed that since his death there has been 884 similar child deaths.
Baby P’s mother Tracey Connelly, 41, was jailed indefinitely in 2009 for a minimum of five years for covering up the abuse, but was released in 2022.
Previously she had been released in 2013 but was recalled to prison in 2015 for selling naked photos of herself and breaching her licence conditions by ‘developing intimate personal relationships’ online.
A few months after her release in April 2023, Connolly had reportedly grown close to another killer mum, Helen Caudwell, 54, who throttled her three-year-old daughter Bethany with a pyjama case in October 2009, according to The Mirror.
The pair were reported to have been living with each other at the unnamed hostel in the north of England in April this year.
A source described the pair as ‘mates’ and said ‘they’re always talking to each other’.
They added: ‘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.
‘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.’
Baby P and his three sisters were sharing the four-bedroom house with their mother, her boyfriend Barker, his paedophile brother Owen and his four children, plus Owen’s 15-year-old girlfriend.
Three of the children – Peter and two of his siblings – were on Haringey’s Child Protection Register because of fears they were being neglected by their mother.
Social workers, health visitors and doctors saw the family 60 times before 17-month-old Peter died from his horrific injuries, which included a snapped spine and eight broken ribs.
Jason Owen, Barker’s older brother who changed his name after a family row,, received a six years sentence and was freed in 2014.
He also has a string of convictions for burglaries, arson and assault, and was accused of raping an 11-year-old when he was 13.
The Parole Board and Ministry of Justice have been approached for comment.