Baby P’s mother Tracey Connelly told a Parole Board hearing “I was a crap mother” as she made a fresh bid to be set free from prison.
Connelly, now 44, was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2009 for allowing the death of her 17-month-old son Peter at their home in Tottenham, north London, on August 3 2007.
Peter, who was known publicly as Baby P before his identity was fully revealed, had suffered a horrifying catalogue of more than 50 injuries at home, including a broken back, fractured ribs, and bruising across his whole body.
Connelly – speaking publicly for the first time since her conviction – branded herself a “crap” mother, and said she selfishly ignored warning signs that her children were in danger.
“I was a bad mother”, she said. “I failed to protect them, I put my needs first.
“I took all my anger at the world out on my older children.
“I didn’t give them what they needed, and they deserved a whole lot better than me.”
Connelly, a mother-of-four, had let her boyfriend, Steven Barker, move into her home along with his brother, Jason Owen, before Peter’s death. But she concealed the true nature of their living arrangements from social services.
Connelly blames Barker for her son’s death, and she told the hearing she ignored signs that her children were in danger.
“There were a hundred and one different things I could have done”, she said. “If I had listened to what my children were trying to tell me, rather than hearing what I wanted to hear, I could have done more.
“I’m ashamed to say I was in my own bubble, I wanted my Prince Charming, and unfortunately my children paid for that.”
Connelly called herself “selfish”, adding: “I didn’t acknowledge it, and for that reason they (the children) were stuck in a worser situation that allowed my son to die.”
She told the hearing her children should have been taken away from her for their own protection.
And asked if she would pose a risk in the future to children, Connelly replied: “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.”
Connelly is seeking release from prison, after her second recall to jail for breaching the terms of her licence.
At the start of the hearing on Wednesday, details emerged for the first time of the reason she was recalled to jail in August last year.
She had started a secret relationship with a man she met online, and hid her true identity from him as well not disclosing her circumstances to her offender management officer.
Asked why, Connelly told the hearing: “I hate my past. How could I ask someone to be OK with that?”
Connelly was originally sentenced to indefinite imprisonment for public protection with a minimum term of five years.
She was first released in October 2013, around 13 months after the minimum tariff expired. But her licence was revoked on February 11 2015 after it was discovered Connelly had been “secretly developing intimate personal relationships via the internet and incited another resident in her accommodation to engage in inappropriate behaviour”, said the Parole Board hearing chair Sally Allbeury.
After four further reviews, Connelly secured her freedom again in March 2022, after the Parole Board heard about her work with a forensic psychologist, as well as three years spent on a unit for high-risk offenders with severe personality disorders.
That release was approved despite Connelly secretly “developing an intimate relationship with another prisoner” during her second spell in prison.
After two years in the community, Connelly was recalled to prison again in August last year when her new online relationship came to light.
Giving evidence, Connelly suggested her first recall was for a online relationship with a man who lived outside the UK, when she had shared sexualised talk and intimate photos.
“It sounds pathetic now”, she said, “I didn’t really view it as a relationship. Internet relationships were new to me, but I now understand an online relationship is a relationship.”
Connelly was accused after her release from prison of “seeking notoriety” by dying her hair bright pink.
She told the hearing that was not the case, she had emerged from jail with blonde hair that “looked like a pair of Marigolds”, and she then attempted to change the colour to red, but it went pink instead.
“Trying to correct a dye job that was really bad, but that went even worse”, she said.
Connelly said her relationship with an inmate was “kissing and cuddling”, and she did not disclose it, insisting they were more like friends than in a relationship.
She told the hearing she was left “pissed off” at jail staff when she disclosed a kiss with a different fellow inmate, and that person was then removed from the wing whether they were both being held.
Her latest recall to prison came after the authorities discovered she had been in a secret relationship with a man, and met him for a weekend away.
Connelly told the panel they had sex twice during a hotel stay, went to a convention, ate out, and saw a film in the cinema.
Connelly described herself as her “own worse bully”, and was asked why she enters into sexual relationships.
“The obsession is kind of I need something - sex is usually my way of dealing with it”, she said.
“I need a connection, even if it’s only temporary sometimes. Some people in the real world go out and have one-night stands. I don’t go out very easily.
“It’s not as if I’m going to go to the pub to have a one-night stand for that connection.”
At the start of the Parole hearing, Ms Allbeury revealed that the panel has privately heard statements from members of Peter’s family “about the ongoing impact of Peter’s death, and their concerns about Ms Connelly’s potential release, including requests for certain conditions in place to protect them.
“We found these statements extremely moving, there can be no doubt Peter’s death caused life-long harm to those who loved him, and as such they are too victims of Ms Connelly’s offending”, she said.
The hearing was told Connelly works in prison as an orderly on the ‘care and separation unit’, she has no friends in the outside world apart from an ex-prisoner she met in jail who she talks to on the phone, and she suffers daily bouts for verbal abuse from fellow inmates.
“Unfortunately it does continue, particularly when Tracey is going to work in the morning”, her prison offender manager told the hearing.
“There has never been any incidents of retaliation, and she has managed that appropriately, seeking support from staff.”
The offender manager told the hearing Connelly takes “full responsibility” for her recalls to prison, and says she did not reveal her relationships out of “fear of being judged because of the status of the relationship”.
She assessed that Connelly knew she had crossed a line that would eventually lead to her being recalled to prison, and decided she “may as well enjoy it while it lasts”.
Connelly says she is “aware of red flags” in relationships, and the offender manager said future risks if Connelly is released would come “if she engages in unhealthy relationships and doesn’t disclose those, and children or someone vulnerable involved in that scenario, if she prioritises her own needs and no consider the needs of children and vulnerable people.”
The offender manager told the hearing she supports the idea of Connelly being released again.
“I consider it would be more likely she is going to be open and honest about her situation and the difficulties she is facing”, she said.
Peter Jones, a retired judge sitting on the panel, replied: “That’s what the professionals thought last time.”
Connelly is present at the Parole Board hearing but cannot be seen on screen. Proceedings are being livestreamed from prison to a meeting room in London with members of the media and public present.
