Boy, 15, stabbed to death on streets of Sheffield was 'exploited' by gangs after being left out of education, report finds

Samuel Baker died on May 24, 2018 after his own knife was turned on him and he was stabbed twice in Lowedges Road, Lowedges by another 15-year-old boy. His killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for 32 months after admitting to his manslaughter during a hearing held in October 2018. A serious case review – SCR – published on Wednesday, February 12 revealed that Samuel was exploited ‘through gang culture’ after being left without any education provision. The teen is said to have initially been on the ‘periphery’ of ‘gang related activity' but soon became ‘more involved and was later identified as making threats of violence and carrying weapons’. “He was controlled by older associates, and thus exploited. The vulnerabilities of his young age, an unstable home life and lack of education provision all contributed to his exploitation through gang culture,” the report said. Samuel moved to the United Kingdom from Bermuda at the age of 11 in summer 2014, initially living with this adult sister and three older siblings. His mother was fleeing an abusive relationship, and joined Samuel in the UK with the rest of his family later on in 2014. Samuel started school in Sheffield in December 2014, and the SCR found that Samuel’s experience of ‘mainstream education was poor’. The SCR report, which was compiled by the independent Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB), states that after his mother became ‘frustrated’ with the agencies involved with his education she ‘reluctantly elected to home educate’ him. “This was not her preference but she felt she had no option to avoid his isolation while awaiting a choice of new school...[he] began to miss significant amounts of education. His behaviour and attendance deteriorated,” the report said. Prior to this decision being made in early December 2015, Samuel had missed ‘most of the academic year’ and his family had re-located to a different area of the city, and had to make a 90-minute journey on public transport to get to school. The SCR found that the decision to home school Samuel was not given ‘appropriate oversight’ and he was left with ‘no education provision in place’. The report details how his mother began to apply for a place at a new school, with the help of a MAST (multi agency support team) worker in April 2016, by which time he had been out of education for four months. Samuel was subsequently given a place at a new school, but only attended for ‘a maximum of 12 days’ during the six months he was on their roll – which concluded in February 2017. At a fair access panel in March 2017, Samuel was allocated a school place at another school, but he was never added to the school’s roll and ‘indeed never attended,’ the report said. During a social care assessment carried out in the summer of 2017, Samuel was assessed to be ‘involved in gang type issues’ – less than a year before his untimely death – but those involved in the assessment concluded that he was he was ‘not at risk of significant harm’. The report says that his involvement with gangs led to an ‘escalating involvement in crime’ which included drug dealing and involvement in incidents including a ‘drive-by shooting’ as well as a disturbance at a car showroom. Samuel was known to threaten to ‘stab opponents’ and was also part of a house invasion in which a female was assulted and the occupant’s drugs were stolen. He was often reported as missing, with some episodes extending into ‘significant periods’ stretching into a week, and in one instance, 13 days. The report said: “Often when he was reported ‘missing’ he was engaged in criminal activity. This can be seen in January 2017 when he was reported missing and was detailed for committing a burglary. Another example was in September 2017, when he was reported missing when he carried out an assault.” In addition to failures to act on Samuel’s ‘escalating involvement in crime’ and lack of education provision, he received no ‘psychological support his bereavement issues’ relating to the loss of his sister who died in a house fire in 2015. Samuel was said to have ‘little voluntary engagement’ with the services available to him. The SCR has concluded that there is ‘learning for all agencies’ to be taken from Samuel’s circumstances in the months and years leading up to his death. The SSCB has also number of recommendations including an escalation process for children not on the school roll and a ‘multi agency approach to child criminal exploitation’.