Social services have
admitted to failings in their care of a baby who was killed by his father in
south west Scotland.
Dumfries and Galloway Council said a mistake was made in not placing Dylan
Lockerbie on the child protection register.
Ian Metcalfe was found guilty on Tuesday of the culpable homicide of Dylan, who
died when he was five months old in March 1996.
Metcalfe, 34, was also convicted of assaulting and killing another son, Kyle,
aged 10 weeks, in 1988.
Social services were involved with the family after Dylan's birth but did not
consider him specifically "at risk", it has emerged.
Since then, a review of the case judged that a mistake was caused by weaknesses
in service arrangements and an error of judgement.
However, the review did not conclude that Dylan's death would necessarily have
been avoidable.
Disciplinary action
The council said "appropriate action" had been taken under its disciplinary
policy but refused to reveal further details.
Procedures now were different to those in 1996, it added.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Keith Makin, chairman of the child protection
committee, said: "I am confident that the way we deal with child protection and
the links between agencies are much stronger and more secure now."
But he added: "No-one can promise to keep children safe in the face of sustained
evil."
In May 2000, after the murder of three-year-old Kennedy McFarlane in Dumfries
and Galloway, the council commissioned Dr Helen Hammond to come up with an
action plan for health and social services.
The Hammond Report, published in February 2001, also reviewed the procedures put
in place after the death of Dylan Lockerbie and concluded they had not been
carried out properly.
The deaths of Kyle and Dylan were originally put down as sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS) or a cot death.
Expert evidence
But Metcalfe's trial heard the opinions of a number of clinicians who said they
thought the babies had been physically abused.
Experts called in to examine the medical evidence found that both victims had
suffered multiple rib fractures before their deaths and had been subjected to
previous suffocating attacks.
Malcolm Wright, chief executive of Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, said "the
climate of opinion" in the late 1980s had encouraged clinicians "to be
supportive and non-judgmental about cot deaths".
Significant research later alerted medical staff to be "more aware of other
diagnoses".
Metcalfe, of Locharbriggs, Dumfries, was found guilty at the High Court in
Edinburgh where he had denied murdering and attempting to murder the two
infants.
He was further found guilty of assaulting, asphyxiating and endangering the life
of a third child, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Sentence was deferred until 20 August for psychiatric reports.
Kyle's mother and Metcalfe's ex-wife, Michelle Johnstone, said the verdict would
now allow her to come to terms with the circumstances of her son's death.
But Dylan's mother Maureen Lockerbie, who is Metcalfe's fiancée, protested that
he was innocent and pledged to stand by him.
