In England, the parents of a child who was tortured to the point of amputation could be released in the coming days after serving only half their sentence, the Daily Mail has reported.
Tony Hudgell, now seven, was just 41 days old when he was attacked by his own parents.
When doctors first saw him, his life was hanging by a thread. The newborn had, among other things, several broken bones, torn ligaments and suffered from sepsis. Due to the extreme level of violence suffered, Tony’s legs had to be amputated.
Tony’s adoptive mother Paula Hudgell described the news as ‘a stab in the stomach’.
“It makes me sick to know that people who abuse babies and children can walk the streets freely,” she told the Daily Mail.
Over the past few years, Mrs. Hudgell has made her son’s story her struggle. She campaigned successfully for Tony’s Law in England to increase penalties for those found guilty of causing ‘serious harm’ to a child aged ten to 14. She is now working on a register of child abusers, so that those convicted of such crimes cannot work with children afterwards.
“My biggest fear is that those who physically abuse babies and children will then be free to go on with their lives without anyone watching them. This desperately needs to change,” Ms Hudgell said.
Sentenced to ten years in prison for what they inflicted on their newborn baby, Jody Simpson, 24, and Anthony Smith, 47, can be released in the coming days after serving less than five years in prison, or half of their sentence.
According to Ms Hudgell, Tony is “angry” that his birth parents are being released so quickly. “He knows his parents did bad things to him, so he wasn’t happy when I told him they weren’t going to be in jail for long,” she said.
Little Tony dreams of becoming a policeman “to arrest his parents again”, added his adoptive mother.