Chapter One told the story of Peter Connelly’s life from March 2006 to his death in August 2007. Chapters Two, Three and Four have recounted how the story of ‘Baby P’ came to be started and shaped in November 2008, and was sustained. This chapter looks at the impact of the ‘Baby P story’. The Sun, in particular, majored on the story and made it a campaigning issue. And the story was increasingly not about Peter Connelly or his family, but about a Director of Children’s Services, managers and social workers in Haringey. Sharon Shoesmith, Director of Children’s Services, along with Maria Ward, a social worker, and Gillie Christou, her manager, became and stayed the focus of a campaign of harassment and hatred over many years.

In what ways was the story of ‘Baby P’ a media creation? First, because Peter’s life and death was horrific; unfortunately, however, this terrible tragedy was only one of many more terrible tragedies of child abuse at that time and since, although the names and stories of most of these other children are not known to the public as they did not attract much attention from the media. It was the editors at The Sun, and to a lesser extent other media, that decided to create a campaign and a continuing catalogue of reports about ‘Baby P’.

Second, it was also the media, and especially The Sun, that decided to focus the ‘Baby P story’ on Sharon Shoesmith and the Haringey social workers. There was limited coverage and comment about health service managers and practitioners, with the Metropolitan Police and police officers largely absent from the media coverage.

Third, it was the media, and especially The Sun, but with contributions from other tabloid newspapers, that made the ‘Baby P story’ one of anger and hatred directed at childcare professionals who, day after day and year after year, gave their professional lives to helping and protecting children. It was a professional task that was distressing and difficult at the best of times, and which had within it constant tension and threat. Adults who abuse children may be manipulative and cunning; they may also be hostile, violent, threatening, intimidating and dangerous.