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The mother of Baby P, the North London toddler who died after being the victim of horrific abuse, has told friends that she will be home in time for Christmas, a police source said tonight.
The mother, her boyfriend and a lodger are to be sentenced next month for their involvement in the death of the youngster, which today provoked a furious row between Gordon Brown and David Cameron over the floor of the Commons.
The three were convicted at the Old Bailey yesterday of "causing or allowing" the death of the boy, who had more than 50 injuries including a broken back. They face jail terms of up to 14 years each when they are sentenced next month.
But a police source told The Times today that the mother, who cannot be named because of a legal order, had not shown any remorse: "None of them appear to be worried or sorry about what happened to the baby. They all feel very sorry for themselves but have not shown any remorse at all. The mother thinks she will be home in time for Christmas."
The Times has also learnt that Haringey Council, sharply criticised after the death of Victoria Climbie eight years ago, hampered the investigation into the death of Baby P by not handing over all their information to murder squad detectives.
It was only when the trial got to court and the judge requested that they provide all their evidence that police officers were able to see everything they had.
A senior source involved in the inquiry said: "The council came in with pages and pages of stuff that we had no idea existed and had never seen before."
The Government tonight announced an urgent inquiry into Haringey Council's handling of the case and said that it would bring a senior child protection officer into the London borough.
As well as information relating to the trial, police sources also said that they did not find out about one hospital visit involving Baby P until long after the event. The doctor was so worried about the bruises and other injuries to the baby that he contacted social services. No-one told the police.
The source said: "There was loads of stuff, whether it would have made a difference we will never know. What we do know is the social workers never gave us all the information and a lot of people believe there should be a public inquiry into what went wrong."
A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that the council had not been as frank as they should have been. "We can confirm that not everything was disclosed until the judge requested that everything should be disclosed at the beginning of the trial."
Aware that they were going to be criticised, Haringey council offered media training, which can cost thousands of pounds, to their main members of staff and even asked the Metropolitan Police if they wanted training as well.
Despite 60 visits to the youngster nobody from the council thought that the injuries were severe enough for him to be removed from the family.
They did give the baby to a family friend but this decision was also criticised by police. An officer said: "How can you give a baby to a family friend. For all we knew that friend may have been involved in any abuse or maybe the friend was scared of the mother and would not say anything detrimental about her.
"We wanted that baby taken into care but we were over-ruled by the council."
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