Hi °C | Lo °C The political row sparked by the torture of two young boys in South Yorkshire has stepped up a gear after Children's Secretary Ed Balls said that publishing a full review into the case would be “deeply irresponsible and put children at risk in our country”.
At Commons question time, he told his Tory counterpart Michael Gove that releasing the Serious Case Review (SCR) in full would reveal “detailed harrowing personal information” and was “not supported by pretty much anyone”.
The exchange came hours after the Prime Minister rejected calls for the SCR to be published, while Tory leader David Cameron demanded that it should be.
Two brothers — aged 10 and 11 at the time of their attack — were locked up last week for at least five years for torturing and sexually humiliating the nine-year-old and 11-year-old boys in Edlington.
Social services and other organisations missed numerous opportunities to intervene with the perpetrators.
Mr Gove said: “In this executive summary, the history of what went wrong occupies only two and a half pages while the full SCR is 150 pages. Will you now accept, as a variety of children's charities and leading experts on child protection have pointed out, that we must go further?”
At his monthly Downing Street briefing, Gordon Brown said full reports were given to the relevant authorities and the summary should be “comprehensive and deal with all the issues”.
