Baby P 'could have ended up a parasite'

The head of one of the country's leading charities provoked anger yesterday after he suggested that Baby P could have grown up to be "feral, a parasite, helping to infest our streets".

Martin Narey, the chief executive of Barnardo's, was accused of being "insensitive and provocative" after focusing on the case of the little boy who died in a blood-splattered cot after months of abuse. Charities and MPs insisted he should have steered clear of focusing on an individual case, particularly one that had engendered such an outpouring of sympathy.

The controversy erupted as it emerged that the doctor who had failed to spot the 17-month-old's broken back and ribs days before he died has been suspended. The General Medical Council (GMC) said its interim orders panel had decided to take action against Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat.

Speaking at a lecture in London on Wednesday night, Mr Narey used Baby P as an example of a disadvantaged child who might have gone on to offend and be locked up as a result of his background. Incarceration was not the answer to youth offending, the former director general of the Prison Service said. Instead, the authorities should recognise that child poverty was linked to offending.

"It saddens me that the probability is that, had Baby P survived, given his own deprivation he might have been unruly by the time he had reached the age of 13 or 14. At which point he'd have become feral, a parasite, a yob, helping to infest our streets," he said as part of the Barnardo's lecture series at the Duke of Wellington Hall, London.

"The response to his criminal behaviour would have been to lock him up," Mr Narey added."Until we stop the persistent and casual incarceration of children who are neither violent nor dangerous we shall simply embed their disadvantage," he continued.

Yesterday, while there was support for the point he was making, many accused the charity chief of "insulting" the little boy's memory.

"These are very unfortunate comments in the light of Baby P's death – projecting into his future when his17 months on earth were so horrific," said Claude Knights, director of children's charity Kidscape.

"If he had been rescued by a family it would have hopefully mitigated a lot of the earlier damage. It is unfortunate to imply that the die is cast." she added.

David Laws, Liberal Democrat children's spokesman, said: "He is making an extremely important point but in a rather insensitive way which is bound to be seen by some people to be provocative, given the outpouring of public sympathy in this tragic case."

Last night, Barnardo's conceded that it had received complaints from members of the public but also calls of support. However, a spokeswoman pointed out that Mr Narey had only used words such as "feral" as a reflection of the incendiary terms employed by some newspapers when referring to children in trouble. In his lecture, Mr Narey had said that the charity found such terms unreasonable.

Baby P died in August last year despite being seen 60 times by social workers, health visitors, doctors and police. Two days before his death, Dr Al-Zayyat examined the toddler at a child development clinic but decided not to carry out a full examination. After the case came to light, Dr Al-Zayyat had her contract with Great Ormond Street Hospital – responsible for child services in Haringey – terminated and was banned from working unsupervised. And yesterday it was revealed that the GMC had decided to upgrade that to a full suspension.