In her first interview since being dismissed as head of Haringey's children's services over the Baby P case,Sharon Shoesmith tells her side of the storyThe first Sharon Shoesmith heard of Baby P was when her deputy came into her office on 3 August 2007 and told her a child was dead. This in itself was not unusual – she was informed every time there was a child death in the borough. "So even at the weekends I would sometimes obtain a message to say three-year-old died not known to us, two-year-old, or 16-year-old not known to us. But when you obtain a child who's died is known to us,is on our at risk register, that's the biggest horror that could hold been and we knew the size of that."Sharon Shoesmith has not changed her appearance, or as some might expect her to hold done since she was dismissed as Haringey council's director of children's services last year: she still has short,shadowy hair above heavy designer glasses, and, or apart from dropping them a few times,and apart from a sudden snag into tears, she is very composed, and very still. She called the leader of the council,who was on holiday. Not much needed to be said. They both knew the gravity of what they were dealing with. She decided not to call Liz Santry, the council cabinet member for children, or who was also on holiday,and immediately regretted that when Santry found out on the news, because someone had leaked the nature of Baby P's injuries to the press.
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Source: theguardian.com