The sentencing of a father who killed his two-year-old son has resulted in a child protection agency breaking its silence and slamming a Government department.

Paul Christian Darrell was sentenced to 14 years in imprison last Friday after being convicted on January 24 of the manslaughter of his two-year-old son D'shun Dill on December 14, 1994.

Yesterday Coalition for the Protection of Children (CPC) chairperson Sheelagh Cooper said: "The matter which is of great concern to the CPC is the role that the Department of Child and Family Services played in the death of this child.

"The department was very much aware of the danger that this child was in and as recently as a few days before his brutal death, the department received a call from neighbours reporting their concern about the beating of this child.

"The department sent a worker to the home, who found no-one home and returned to her office without further intervention.'' Mrs. Cooper said a few days later the child was beaten to death so severely that American pathologist Dr. Valerie Rao testified it was the worst case of child abuse she had seen in 20 years.

She said the CPC was approached shortly after the toddler's death by a foster parent who had looked after the child before the department took him from her and returned him to his father.

"She asked us why the department took baby Dill from her, returning him to his father. We now ask...why was this child removed from the foster home without the ongoing presence of the department monitoring the situation?'' And Mrs. Cooper said there were other questions which needed to be answered including: Why, when a report was made involving the beating of this child, did the department not intervene immediately and decisively; Did the department notify the Police; Why did it take from December, 1994, until this month to bring this case to a resolution; Why did it take so long after the child's death to lay a charge against the man who was ultimately convicted of this offence; and Why was the negligence of the Department of Child and Family Services never raised in connection with this case? She said the CPC was awaiting a statement from the Health and Social Services Ministry with answers to these questions which would have been raised earlier if the CPC had not been forced into silence while the case was before the courts.

She added: "Now that the case has come to some resolution it is vitally important that details of this matter be reviewed and a commission of inquiry appointed.'' In April, 1995, the CPC claimed the child's death had gone unnoticed, prompting denials from the Police and then-Health Minister Quinton Edness, who said the matter was sub judice and no comment should be made about it which was likely to prejudice the case.

He added: "However, at the appropriate time when a statement can be made without so prejudicing the case and the matter is no longer sub judice a statement of the involvement of the department will be made.'' Health Minister Dr. Clarence Terceira revealed yesterday that he had asked Child and Family Services director Luelle Todd for a report on the matter which he expected later today or, at the latest, tomorrow morning.

COALITION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILDREN CLB CLD HTH