Baby P’s mother has told a parole hearing she was a “bad mother” to her children, and that they “deserved a whole lot better than me”.
Tracey Connelly, now in her forties, was jailed in 2009 for causing or allowing the death of her 17-month-old son Peter at their home in Haringey, north London, on 3 August 2007.
Giving her first public statements since her conviction, she repeatedly told the panel that she was “selfish” and that she had ignored the warning signs about her former boyfriend, Steven Barker, as she wanted her “prince charming”.
Barker and his brother, Jason Owen, were also convicted of the same crime and imprisoned for the mistreatment and death of Peter.
Connelly said “deep down” she knew Barker was abusing her son, but was “so busy trying to prove all the professionals wrong that I ignored my gut”.
The case received widespread attention and prompted an overhaul of social services, with three inquiries and a nationwide review assessing how authorities handle the safeguarding of vulnerable children.
Known publicly as Baby P, Peter had suffered more than 50 injuries, including a broken back and ribs, despite receiving 60 visits from social workers, police officers and health professionals over eight months.
Asked about approach to parenting, she said: “I was going through a very emotional time, it’s no excuse, I wasn’t taking my antidepressants, I wasn’t well. It doesn’t justify or excuse any of my behaviour, I wasn’t emotionally available to be the mum that my children deserved.”
She openly admitted to slapping her children, and said: “I used to do it if they misbehaved. The reality is that it was more when I wasn’t coping. There’s no point trying to say they were naughty, so I slapped them; it was easier for me to slap them rather than deal with it and try to explain like a proper mother would have done.”
Connelly told the hearing that her childhood had been “torture”, and said of her own parenting: “I failed to protect them, I put my needs first. I took all my anger at the world on my older children, I didn’t give them what they needed – and they deserved a whole lot better than me.
“Unfortunately, as to having me as a mother, they have endured similar tortures that I went through. While I’d have loved to be a mother that broke the cycle, I was a mother that perpetuated the cycle.”
She added: “They were stuck in a worse situation that allowed my son to die.”
She is facing her first open parole hearing, after being recalled to prison for developing an intimate relationship with a man and failing to disclose it to those supervising her.
Connelly was first released in 2013, having served the minimum term of five years of an indefinite sentence for public protection (IPP), after admitting the offence of causing or allowing the death of her son.
She was recalled in 2015 after developing “intimate personal relationships via the internet” and inciting another resident at her accommodation to “engage in inappropriate behaviour”.
Now aged in her forties, she left prison in July 2022 after the Parole Board ruled she was suitable for release in March that year – having rejected three previous bids in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
This was despite the panel highlighting concerns over Connelly’s ability to manipulate and deceive, and hearing evidence of how she had become embroiled in prison romances and traded secret love letters with an inmate.
She was recalled again in August 2024 after failing to disclose another intimate relationship with a man she had met online, and deleting material on her phone to avoid being detected.
Parole hearings are usually held in private, but a judge approved applications for Connelly’s review to be heard in public, concluding it was a “landmark case” as “one of the most high-profile and devastating child protection failures in UK history”.
Asked about this 2024 relationship, she accepted she had lied about visiting a hotel with the man and inviting him to her home address.
She tearfully said: “I lied again, not good enough excuses. There was a whole list of fear of judgement, being recalled, the rejection if I told him who I was. Anyone with a right mind would run a mile.”
She added: “I was like ‘What if I tell him who I am, how can a normal person ever look at me again after being told that?’ I have to live with it and I hate my past. How can I ask someone else to be okay with that?”
Her prison offender manager (POM) said that she recommended re-release in line with a management plan, stating that she was “more likely” to disclose future relationships as a result of the therapy programmes undertaken in custody.
Asked about the likelihood of her entering another “unhealthy relationship”, she responded: “That’s a difficult one. Based on discussions I’ve had with Tracey, I think she’s got an awareness of an unhealthy relationship and the warning signs of what that could be.”
When asked by psychologist panel member Fiona Ainsworth if Connelly had made any progress to “understanding why she’s getting in the same patterns of behaviour,” her POM said that the relationship had “made her feel good about herself”.
She had also voiced concerns that if she were to disclose her relationship, parole officers may insist that her convictions be disclosed to her new partner, which could lead to fear of “rejection”.
Asked if she perceives herself as being a risk to children, Connelly said: “Children in my care? Yes.
“Given how bad I was at it, I have to always accept that there is always a risk if I am left looking after children, which I can’t see ever being the case. Am I a risk to children walking down the street? No.”
The panel also heard that she had been subjected to abuse and threats in jail, but had not retaliated during her last year in prison.
Statements from members of Peter’s family were not read aloud but the panel chair, Sally Allbeury, said: “We found these statements extremely moving. There can be no doubt Peter’s death has caused life-long harm to those who loved him and as such are also victims of Ms Connelly’s offending.”
The public parole hearing will continue on Thursday.
