Social workers investigating the couple (left) who killed innocent Star Hobson (top right) cleared them five times - even declaring a referral to them was 'malicious' the week before she was murdered. The authorities fell for mother Frankie Smith, 20, and her 28-year-old girlfriend Savannah Brockhill's lies, despite a series of concerns raised by relatives. During an unannounced social worker visit to their Keighley home on September 15 last year Star was so dazed by the abuse she had suffered she walked into a sofa. She had bruises on her face and shins but the Bradford City Council worker believed Brockhill's explanation she'd fallen down the stairs. In fact she was being 'choke slammed', swung by her leg and hit in the face by the twisted couple. They referred to her as a 'brat' and forced her to stand facing the wall for long periods of time during their reign of cruelty. In total two friends and three relatives - including Star's own father - had reported them to social services but they were still allowed to keep her. As the case concluded today, serious questions were being asked of the authorities. Two month ago the head of the council's Children Services department Mark Douglas (lower right) resigned. Ofsted rated the service as 'inadequate' in 2018 and warned 'some children were at serious risk of harm'. In June this year it was hit with a 'direction to improve' over a 'slow pace of change'. Mail.
