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PODCAST

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures

Child Protection Files covers real child protection cases in depth- cases that have already gone through the courts, inquests, and public inquiries- so nothing discussed here is speculation about an ongoing matter.Each episode goes beyond the headlines: the full timeline, the trial, the judge"s own words, and the public inquiry that followed. But the real focus is the profession itself: the caseworkers, police officers, and doctors involved; the caseloads and supervision failures behind the

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All Episodes

51:13

Who Took Rilya Wilson? Full case file for Rilya Wilson

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/10/07

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.In the spring of 2002, a Florida state worker went looking for a four-year-old girl in a foster home. She wasn't there. The woman caring for her said a stranger claiming to work for the state had taken her away for an evaluation, fifteen months earlier. In that time the Department of Children and Families had kept paying for her care, and one court report said she was safe in her caretaker's home.This is the case file on Rilya Wilson. I

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51:36

Approved to Care: Jeffrey Baldwin full Case file

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/10/03

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.Nobody Looked: The Jeffrey Baldwin CaseIn 1998, a Toronto children's aid society approved a grandmother and her husband as legal guardians of four small children. The agency held a file on the woman that went back almost thirty years. It held a conviction for assaulting her own five-month-old daughter, and records on the man she lived with, who had beaten two of her other children into hospital. Nobody checked any of it.Four years later,

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43:48

One of the Most Protected": full case file of Finley...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/30

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.Finley Boden lived thirty-nine days after a family court decided he was safe to go home. He had been removed from his parents' care within weeks of his birth in February 2020, due to heavy cannabis use, an unsafe home, and the risk of domestic violence between them. Social workers who knew the family best recommended a cautious six-month transition back into their care. A court ordered eight weeks instead. Finley went home — and on Christmas

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47:31

Thirty Hours: Nia Glassie Case: The Full case file

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/27

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.Episode Description:Nia Glassie was three years old when the adults responsible for her — her mother, her mother's much younger boyfriend, his brother, and other adults moving through their Rotorua household — began treating her injuries as entertainment. Over roughly three months in 2007, she was spun inside a running clothes dryer, tied to a rotary clothesline, held upside down over an open fire, and used as a live target for adults

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54:51

Jordan Belliveau: The Full Case File

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/20

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.Jordan Belliveau was two years old when he was reunified with his parents in the summer of 2018, months after his own court-appointed guardian ad litem formally objected. Five months later, his mother told police a stranger had abducted him from a park. It wasn't true — she had killed him weeks earlier and buried him behind a recreation center in Largo, Florida.This episode traces how a two-year-old with an active dependency case ended up

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74:09

Nixzmary Brown: The Full Case File

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/15

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.Between October 2004 and December 2005, New York City's child welfare hotline received at least eight separate reports about one Brooklyn family. On January 11, 2006, seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown died weighing just 36 pounds, having been beaten, starved, and confined to a room in her family's apartment. This episode traces the full case file: the fourteen months of missed warning signs, the trial and conviction of her mother Nixzaliz

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47:25

Full case file: Star Hobson: When "Malicious Gossip"...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/11

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.Child Protection FilesEpisode DescriptionIn the eight months before sixteen-month-old Star Hobson died in Bradford, West Yorkshire, at least five different people who loved her (a family friend, her grandmother, her great-grandfather, her father, her grandfather) independently contacted social services or the police to say she was in danger. Every referral was investigated. Every case was closed.On the 22nd of September, 2020, Star died in

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65:28

Full case file: Held Like a Hostage: The Mason Jet...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/06

Episode Notes: Mason Jet Lee: The Full Case FileMason Jet Lee was twenty-one months old when he died in Caboolture, Queensland, in June 2016, from peritonitis caused by an untreated ruptured intestine, inflicted by his mother's partner, William O'Sullivan, days earlier. The day before his death, a neighbour called Queensland's Child Safety Department and said Mason was being held "like a hostage." The staff member who took the call did nothing and went home. A 2020 coronial inquest found the

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38:00

Sent Back to Danger: The Meika Jordan Case

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/06

Episode Notes — Meika Jordan: The Full Case FileMeika Jordan was six years old when she was tortured to death over several days in November 2011 by her father, Spencer Jordan, and his partner, Marie Magoon, in Calgary, Alberta. Her death came roughly ten weeks after a judge reversed an earlier custody order and returned her to their care, despite the couple having disappeared with Meika and her brother for three weeks that August, surfacing in a homeless shelter, an incident police were directly

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39:20

Full case file: Sherin Mathews: They adopted her from...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/06

Sherin Mathews was three years old when she died in Richardson, Texas, in October 2017, months after a forensic child abuse pediatrician told Texas CPS that fractures found on her body were most likely the result of ongoing abuse in her adoptive home. CPS closed the case anyway in April 2017, concluding the abuse "may have happened prior to her adoption." Seven months later, her adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, reported her missing; her body was found in a drainage culvert two weeks later. He later

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27:13

The Boy ACS Investigated Five Times: The Zymere...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/09/04

Episode Notes — Zymere Perkins: The Full Case FileZymere Perkins was six years old when he died in a Harlem apartment in September 2016, after months of escalating abuse by his mother's boyfriend, Rysheim Smith, with his mother, Geraldine Perkins, also complicit. New York City's ACS had investigated five separate reports involving Zymere in the year before his death, including a school report of a broken jaw and knocked-out tooth, and the state later found the agency's casework "grossly incomplete."

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29:17

"Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: 130 Injuries and a Lockdown...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/30

Episode Notes — Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: The Full Case FileArthur Labinjo-Hughes was six years old when he died in Solihull, England, in June 2020, after months of sustained abuse at the hands of his father's partner, Emma Tustin, with his father, Thomas Hughes, convicted of manslaughter for failing to protect him. This episode traces the case from Arthur's early childhood through the ten critical days in April 2020 when his grandmother's emergency call, photographic evidence, and a school's follow-up

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29:32

"Thirteen Medications: The Lindsay Clancy Case...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/24

Episode Notes — Thirteen Medications: The Lindsay Clancy Case [Developing — Trial Ongoing]Case: Lindsay Clancy Location: Duxbury, Massachusetts Status: Ongoing — trial nearing conclusion, no verdict as of publication Period covered: 2022–2026 (production date: August 2026)Key people:Lindsay Clancy — former labor and delivery nurse, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of first-degree murderPatrick Clancy — Lindsay's husband, discovered the children and called 911Cora, Dawson, and

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32:58

"Mum Did That": The Kiesha Weippeart Case

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/23

Episode Notes — Four Days of School: The Kiesha Weippeart CaseCase: Kiesha Weippeart Location: Mount Druitt, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Period covered: 2004–2013Key people:Kiesha Weippeart — the child at the centre of this case, murdered 14 July 2010, age 6Kristi Abrahams — Kiesha's mother, pleaded guilty to murder, sentenced to 22 years 6 months (non-parole 16 years, eligible 2027)Robert Smith — Kiesha's stepfather, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and being an accessory after the fact,

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31:18

The Woman Who Couldn't Speak: The Grace Case

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/23

Episode Notes — Overturned: The Grace CaseCase: The Grace case (Ireland) Location: South East Ireland (Waterford region) Period covered: 1989–2025Key people:Grace — court-protected pseudonym for a woman with a significant intellectual and physical disability, non-verbal, made a Ward of Court. Her real identity has never been published and is not used in this episode.Mr and Mrs X — the foster carers, referred to only by this designation in official recordsIain Smith — HSE social work manager who

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32:27

The Warning That Came True: The Hart Family Case

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/22

Episode Notes — The Warning That Came True: The Hart Family CaseCase: The Hart family Locations: Minnesota, West Linn (Oregon), Woodland (Washington), Mendocino County (California) Period covered: 2006–2019Key people:Jennifer Hart and Sarah Hart — adoptive parents, ruled to have died by suicide after intentionally killing their six childrenMarkis, Hannah, and Abigail Hart — adopted 2006Devonte, Jeremiah, and Ciera Hart — adopted 2009; Devonte was the boy in the widely shared 2014 photograph hugging

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30:59

Full case file. The Boy in the Shower Stall: The...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/08

Episode Notes — Fifteen Reports: The Adrian Jones CaseCase: Adrian Jones Locations: Kansas City, Kansas; Plattsburg, Missouri Period covered: 2011–2024 (case, trial, and subsequent legislative reform)Key people:Adrian Jones — the child at the centre of this case, died September/October 2015, age 7Michael Jones — Adrian's father, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, sentenced to life with parole eligibility after 25 yearsHeather Jones — Adrian's stepmother, convicted, sentenced to life plus 5 years

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36:24

Full case file, Warren Jeffs and the FLDS

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/08

Episode Notes — Warren Jeffs and the FLDSCase: Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) Locations: Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Arizona; Yearning For Zion Ranch, Eldorado, Texas Period covered: 1953–2026Key people:Warren Jeffs — FLDS prophet from 2002, convicted in Texas in 2011 of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sexual assault of a childElissa Wall — forced into marriage at age 14; testified publicly under her own name and wrote a memoir about

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28:56

Full case file. The Ten-Day Warning: The Moko...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/08/08

Case: Moko Rangitoheriri, Taupō, New Zealand Age at death: 3 years old Date of death: 10 August 2015Key people:Moko Sayviah Rangitoheriri — the child at the centre of this caseNicola Dally-Paki — Moko's motherTania Shailer — informal caregiver, convicted of manslaughter and ill-treatment of a childDavid Haerewa — Shailer's partner, convicted of manslaughter and ill-treatment of a childJustice Sarah Katz — presided over sentencing, Rotorua High CourtCoroner Wallace Bain — led the coronial inquest,

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33:54

Episode 7: Daniel Pelka, They Compared His Body to a...

Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures ·

2026/07/31

In March 2012, four-year-old Daniel Pelka died in Coventry, England, after months of starvation and abuse by his mother and her partner. Police had been called to his home twenty-six times over six years. A social worker had assessed him as recently as months before his death. His teachers watched him scavenge food from classroom bins. By the time he died, his body was compared by police to that of a concentration camp victim.This episode goes forensically through the case: the domestic violence

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