The United Kingdom is in shock over the case of little Bronson Battersby, a two-year-old boy who died of starvation alongside his father Kenneth, who suffered a heart attack in their home in Skegness, Lincolnshire, northern England.
"No one helped him", is the recurring phrase in the British media for a dramatic event that occurred in a family on the margins of society and, moreover, blamed on itself by the authorities who should have helped it.
The tragic truth came to light on January 9, when the two lifeless bodies were found, with the child curled up next to his father, but it is continuing to be talked about in recent days due to the gravity of the matter, the heartbreaking details that emerged from the testimony of the distant mother, and after the launch of an investigation to shed light on the responsibilities of the police.
A social worker, as he usually did, went to the Battersby house on January 2nd to see the little boy, considered "vulnerable" due to the many problems in his family aggravated by the separation of his parents, but no one responded to him.
She then contacted the police but they did not intervene.
The same happened two days later.
The two bodies were not found until the social worker managed to enter the house with a copy of the house keys.
So none of the neighbors heard anything, such as the little one's cries seeking help, or in any case they were ignored because they were normal.
According to the media reconstruction, Bronson died due to the time spent without food and water: it is not known exactly how long after the death of his 60-year-old father which occurred no earlier than December 29th.
The mother, 43-year-old Sarah Piesse, is consumed by remorse for not being with her son when he needed her most, as she told the Sun. "I am in a living nightmare and I will never wake up," she told the tabloid.
She had last seen Bronson - one of the former couple's three children entrusted to her father - just before Christmas.
“I can't think of anything else, of him dying of hunger, of him reaching out,” she said desperately, adding that her son was found a few centimeters from the refrigerator.
And again: "He spent his last moments alone and must have been very thirsty and hungry. He must have cried. He must have been so confused."
In her moving testimony, Sarah pointed the finger at social workers, accusing them of not doing enough.
In her opinion, despite the lack of intervention by the police, they should have acted more decisively already on January 2nd, when, perhaps, the child could still have been saved.
The only survivor in this family drama is the family dog, found emaciated but alive.
The Bronson affair reached the highest institutional levels of the Kingdom.
Downing Street described the child's death as "deeply shocking" and fully supported the investigation and investigation launched to understand how such a case could have occurred.
While in the House of Commons a message of condolence was given to the Battersby family.
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