Inquiries Into Boy's Deaths Launched

Two separate inquiries into the death of two young boy's who were found stabbed at their home in Greater Manchester, have been launched today.

The bodies, Delayno, who was three-months-old and his two-year-old brother Romario Mullings-Sewell were discovered at a property in the Cheetham Hill area on Wednesday.

Their mother, Jael mullings, 21, was arrested on suspicion of their murder.

They had been found stabbed to death and the boy's mother has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Manchester City Council has launched a review into social services' involvement in the tragedy, while the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would be looking into how police handled the incident.

The council confirmed the family had been known to them and concerns about their mother had been raised just hours earlier.

While social workers were not involved with the Mullings family, they had given community support in the form of childminding and nursery provisions, while Ms Mullings was taking a higher education course.

Pauline Newman, Manchester's director of children's services, said: "I am currently involved with my senior staff team in urgently considering the nature, extent and appropriateness of children’s services involvement with the family."

The boy's family released a tribute to the young victims, which read: "We, as a family, are struggling to come to terms with the tragic events of yesterday afternoon and we cannot even begin to understand what happened.

"Everybody is completely devastated and although we appreciated the interest of the press we would be very grateful if the family could be left in peace to begin the grieving process. We hope that wherever the boys have gone to they are at peace."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said officers responded to a call on Wednesday afternoon shortly after 2.50pm. They called to the house, but did not enter it, after receiving information from a person concerned for the welfare of the family.

The spokesman said: "We went round to the house but there was no one there. We did checks with neighbours and are searches."

He added police also visited the home of the children's grandparent, though there was no one there either.

The spokesman added: "While we were making these inquiries we got a 999 call which suggested that the children were back in the house, dead."

The IPCC said it was assessing the police response to the phone calls.

(JM)