Episode 6 The Bottom Line

very mild overnight. Cloudy and dampen the West. -- dam in the West.

Brightness developing across eastern England and eastern

Scotland. Rain heavier and more persistent for Northern Ireland,

western Scotland. East Anglia and the south-east will be very mild.

Tuesday will be a lovely day. Writer winds and very mild. --

This is BBC News. A summary of the news: China has joined

international calls for an end to Syria's violent crackdown on anti-

government protests. Syria's President warned of an earthquake

if the West where to intervene in his country. It would risk serious

becoming another Afghanistan. Two Britons were among the 17 killed in

Kabul yesterday in a car-bomb attack. They were electricians

working for an American building company. They were in an armoured

bus when it was hit by a Taliban suicide bomber. The Australian

airline Qantas said it hopes to resume flights within the next 24

hours. They grounded their entire fleet overran industrial dispute.

The airline said there were 3,000 affected passengers at Heathrow.

The Bishop of London has told anti- capitalist demonstrators outside St

Paul's Cathedral that he does not want to see their protest in the

end violence. Today was the first Sunday service since St Paul's was

opened again on Friday. A freak snowstorm in the US has left 10,000

homes and businesses without power. Three people are reported to have

died. Now, in a disturbing programme on child abuse in America,

Natalia Antelava goes to Texas to investigate the roots of a growing

epidemic of child deaths. Rebecca died when she was three. She was

beaten to death. But hers is just one story. Behind each face are

dozens of others. Every year, hundreds, possibly thousands of

children die in the world's richest democracy. Killed by people who

were meant to care for them. Clearly it is a huge public health

issue. It is a major epidemic. us get to the developing story of

the death of a three-year-old boy. A mother has been charged with

manslaughter. If that was a health issue, if that was kids getting

bumps on their hands which stopped them from writing, it would be

called an epidemic. Police say she was forced into a foot locker. A

two-year-old is in the hospital with liver damage. I am so tired of

the lack of response. She is four years old. Child abuse is

completely preventable. At the scene, investigators found two

children. They were aged seven and six. We're breeding an army of

future child abusers. It was March 2007. San Antonio was in full bloom.

But in this street, residents realised something had gone wrong.

In there. They said they came looking for a dead animal. Instead,

they found the bodies of two babies. So the baby was under this gap?

was there for three months. Three months? Yes. During the

investigation and trial that followed, their mother admitted to

beating her 18-month-old daughter to death because she would not stop

crying. Weeks later she also killed her four-month-old son Sebastien

and buried him next to his sister. Valerie Lopez and her boyfriend are

in prison for life. Four years on their flat is still up for rent.

The community is still in shock. Elsewhere in the US, thousands of

other children have died since in circumstances just as chilling.

Child abuse is a crime like no other. It happens behind closed

doors to those who often have no voice. It is difficult to detect,

more difficult to investigate and extremely hard to come to terms

with. No family, no community wants to admit it is failing to protect

its children. And yet more and more people, doctors, educators,

congressmen, are warning that in the United States, child abuse is a

problem of endemic proportions. While it happens everywhere, better

reporting of child abuse makes statistics more reliable in the

industrialised world. The only available comparative UN report

from 2003 estimates that every week, on average, two children die from

abuse in Britain and in Germany. Three in France. Four in Japan. And

27 in the United States. The combined population of these

countries is bigger than the US. But the rate in the US is three

times higher. The question is, why? In America, individualism is sacred.

In Texas, they pride themselves on being more independent and more

self-sufficient than anywhere else. We came into Texas because

everything is bigger here. The latest data from 2009 shows that

267 children died from abuse here. More than in any other state.

Officials say they are better at reporting deaths. As we travelled

across Texas we found reasons behind this staggering number.

They're far more complex. In her father's memory, Emma will always

be four. She would be sitting on the couch. She would look at me and

I would look at her. I would ask her, are you daddy's baby? She

would laugh and tell me, no I am mummy's baby. I would feign outrage.

What? What? She would start laughing. I'd say, no! She'd just

laugh. In the final weekend she was over I asked if she was daddy's

baby. She just said, yes. She just said, yes. We have an update on

breaking news. A mother sentenced to prison for not protecting her

little girl from abuse. Once the lights were shown, there was

bruising all over her body. On her stomach. She had a busted lip.

Bruising all over her face. Emma's mother, Abigail Young, moved in

with her boyfriend. He had a previous history of child abuse.

Lucas was sentenced to life in prison for raping and killing Emma.

Abigail is serving a 20-year sentence for failing to prevent her

daughter's death. Three weeks before she died, Emma was diagnosed

with genital herpes. Doctors reported it to the Child Protection

Services. They said sexually transmitted disease was not enough

of a reason to remove a child from home. Everybody had a chance to

save her. Everybody missed the signs? Everybody missed the signs.

There were signs from my family, signs that CBS missed, signs that

the doctors missed. Within weeks of her death, two toddlers were killed

in Texas. Both were under the watch of Child Protection Services. The

agency launched an internal investigation into their deaths.

Nobody was fired. Generally we do not talk about case-specific

information. There are some times when a woman or man, whoever we are

investigating, lies to us and we believe their lies. Surely the fact

that a four-year old had genital herpes was enough of an indication?

We certainly had medical indications that herpes can be

caused by many things. There were assertions from the parents. I have

had cases on this road. You cannot judge a neighbourhood on whether or

not there is abuse happening here. I would put nothing past anyone.

John Paul's job is to go from house-to-house investigating abuse

that happens behind closed doors. He was not involved in Emma's case,

but for him it is a reminder about what happens if he fails. The

problem, he says, is that it is easy to fail. John Paul is

currently investigating 38 families. That is more than double the

recommended case load. The main reason that the lot of

investigators are afraid to voice their opinions is because they

might lose their job. He was not authorised to talk to us. But he

felt it was necessary to do so. I have seen so much happen in the

five years I have been with the agency. I feel as if the

investigators that are out there doing the hard work but they are

not being heard by the upper level management. I think a lot of people

need to realise that just like police officers can burn out,

investigators can feel burnt-out. Overworked and underpaid officers

and a slow and often inefficient chain of command are not the only

reasons why so many children fall through the cracks of the system.

The former chief prosecutor of Harris County says that it is a

problem. He says the agency focuses too much on keeping families

together because that is what the Federal Government wants to do.

Randy Burton now owns this law firm. That is how he pays for providing

free legal services for children in trouble. His cabinets are full of

stories of children that were killed because they were allowed to

stay at home. In order to preserve the influx of federal money, which

has over half the money that states get for child welfare, it has

become an end in itself. We're going to make every effort to try

and preserve these families. So in a state like Texas, that boasts the

lowest rate of removal from homes in the nation, it is not surprising

they also have the highest number of child fatalities in the nation.

Up to 40% of children who die from abuse in the US have files with

Child Protection Services. This makes it very easy for the critics

to attack the agency. Not for their lack of desire, but for being too

much of a slow, clumsy bureaucracy. Some say critics are missing a

bigger problem. One of the bigger things that people need to remember

about CPS is that their job is about protecting children after the

fact. Their role is not to keep children from being harmed. That is

a huge point that people need to understand. I think it is all of

our jobs to protect children in the More than 30,000 children are

already in foster care in Texas. The system is overloaded. Every

year, hundreds of children come through this foster home as they

wait for the Government to find them a new family or to decide if

it is safer than to return to their parents. Some spend months here.

Others, years. No matter how many scars, how many prisoners they were

brought here with, all of their teachers say the children are

Child abuse is possibly the only crime in which the victim simply

doesn't know that something has This TV campaign is an attempt to

start a public dialogue about child abuse. It is not easy. The taboo

got broken about having breast cancer. We need that on this issue.

We need to break the issue. We need a first lady of the US to help

Dallas Children's Hospital is one of the biggest paediatric hospitals

in the US. From cancer to heart transplants, they do everything

here. And yet, child abuse accounts for 30% of the hospital's deaths.

The numbers are on the rise. We see increasing violence. I think the

cases that involve more double children in the one home are the

most striking. -- multiple. This particular scenario would be

siblings who are chronically and Torture situations. Dr Matthew Cox

is one of these few paediatricians in the country specialising in

abuse. He runs an abuse and neglect clinic. Most kids don't look like

the battered baby that we often see. Most child abuse does not look like

that. Most of the kids who are abused in the most severe forms

have internal injuries, with no external manifestations. The

doctors have to be aware of it and think about it. If they do not

think about it as a physician, they will miss the diagnosis. Currently,

most US medical students get only a day's worth of lectures on child

abuse while they are at in college. Not these students. Dr Cox make

sure they learn plenty about it. We joined Dr Cox as he took his

students to a courthouse in amiably tan, testifying in cases of child

abuse. It is part of his routine. It was a six-month-old girl. I was

one of the surgeons who treated her. We go in without a camera. Medical

treatment is often decisive in child abuse cases. After his

testimony, Dr Cox tells his students that it will be a big part

of their work. There is a lot more to the story then was presented. I

am concerned about the safety of the child. How do you prepare for

the case? This is one that has been said a couple of times. This was

ten months ago. In that time, I had seemed well over 1,000 other kids.

I didn't remember everything. Documenting the records is

important. I average being called as a witness about once a week. We

cannot fathom what kind of environment some children living.

In Washington, some politicians are beginning to recognise what many

told us is a real national crisis. Our role today is to be a voice for

the voiceless. A congressional report says that the current

numbers of child deaths are in fact a gross underestimate. I have been

here for almost 25 years. I have attended many hearings. This has

been one of the most painful. 2009, over 1,000 children died from

abuse according to the official data. The real number, according to

Congress, could be at over 2000. Expert witnesses explained why the

Government had to play a more active role. States need emergency

help now. Resources are dwindling, what child abuse and neglect is

increasing. Here is an example of a programme that many believe can

prevent abuse. Crystal is a qualified nurse. Every week for the

next two years, she will visit this child, because the state of Texas

says that he fits the criteria of a child at risk. Only one person in

his family has a job. No-one has health insurance. His parents have

just turned 18. While causes behind child abuse are complex, statistics

show it is more common in areas with more by a rights of poverty

and teenage pregnancy. -- high rates of. At this point, new

parents will get so frustrated and overwhelmed that they will throw

the baby down on the couch or shake the baby. This couple are

determined to be good parents, but they say teenagers need help.

frustrated at some points. I will not hurt him. I am conscious of

what I'm doing. But it does sound like a lot a parents, especially

dance, feel like they are still teenagers and having fun. -- dads.

They will get frustrated and do something about it. They may regret

it later, but it happens. Prevention could be an important

part of the solution, but because of budget cuts, dozens of state,

including Texas, and cutting their prevention budgets. This leaves

millions of children without a safety net. Madeleine says it is

getting harder to push prevention programmes. Legislators from both

sides of love children. They are not adequately educated on the

consequences of abuse and how they are paying for it. They look at the

medical costs. They look at the prison cost. Remedial education.

This is one of the most important routes of all evil in our society.

The televised trial of a Florida woman, Stacey. She was accused of

helping her brother to kill their parents. Prosecutors said it abuse

they experienced in childhood was a cause of the murder. Stacey was

found innocent and agree to talk to us about what it was like to grow

up in an abusive home. Crying was forbidden in the house. If you

cried, you got beaten more. If you made a sound when you hit, you got

it more. If you made a sound or try to move when you rate, it last

longer and got more violent. -- got raped. You just took it and dealt

with it. Once you are reduced, you do not know anything but anger and

violence. -- are abused. That's all you know how to live there.

years on, she is still in therapy. Her brother is in jail for

murdering their parents. The more damaged our children become, the

more damaged our society becomes. We need to open doors for these

kids to get help. A study done by the US Justice Department found

that 68% of the inmates were abused as children. Those numbers are

adding up and they are adding up in a terrible way. Across the US, many

are trying to the cycle of violence that starts in childhood. It is a

battle they will win only when the rest of the country acknowledges