Teenage babysitter murdered two-year-old girl

Friday 26 June 2009

A 15-year-old babysitter was today convicted of the murder of a two-year-old girl who was beaten and suffered 68 injuries while her mother was shopping. The girl, Demi, was bitten, beaten and had her hair sheared off by Karl McCluney who was looking after her for 90 minutes.

Manchester crown court heard that McCluney took Demi to a park before attacking her at a flat in Eccles, Greater Manchester, then watching television as she lay injured. The mother, heroin user Ann Marie McDonald, told the jury she had left her daughter with McCluney several times. She returned that day to find him standing outside the house and he tols her: “I picked her up – I might have hurt her – and she fell in the park.” She screamed at him and asked him why he hadn’t called an ambulance. He claimed: “I haven’t done nothing.”

The local authority admitted it failed to initiate a child protection investigation despite the threshold being met. The professional focus was focused on the mother, she regularly missed medical appointments and lied about her drug use and overdose on heroin.

McCluney attempted to cover up responsibility by telling a series of lies. A psychiatrist said that McCluney suffered from an unsocialised conduct disorder and had a below- normal IQ.

I think it is really sad that this happened to such young children, both the girl and for the boy. I would really like to know what happened with this boy that he killed a 2 year old girl.