Bronson Battersby: Two-year-old boy who starved to death was too small to reach fridge, says mum
Bronson Battersby, the two-year-old boy who was found starved to death alone next to his father who had suffered a fatal heart attack over Christmas, was two inches too short to reach the fridge, his heartbroken mother has said.
Bronson’s body was found with his father Kenneth’s at their home in Skegness on 9 January.
The boy’s mother Sarah Piesse, 43, told The Sun she would never forgive herself for not being there for him.
The couple – who also share a daughter, three, and son, seven – split in 2019, and both decided Bronson would live with his father.
She said she was consumed with “regret” and haunted by the vision of her son searching desperately for food and water.
“I am in a living nightmare and I am never going to wake up from it,” she said.
Bronson Battersby with his mother Sarah Piesse
Bronson’s ‘last moments were spent alone’
She described Bronson as a “typical, cheeky, little two-year-old” who “was always trying to get his pink wafers”.
“When we said no more, he’d smile and shout, ‘Yeah! More, more, more!’
“Kenny moved all the snacks higher up so he couldn’t get to them without asking.
“Now all I can think of in my head is him starving, reaching up and trying to get them. I can’t bear it.
“He was about two inches off being able to reach the fridge to open it.
“His last moments were spent alone and he must have been so thirsty and hungry.
“He will have been crying. He will have been so confused.
“And Kenny was there on the floor. I can only pray he thought his dad was asleep.”
Bronson with his dad Kenneth Battersby
‘If Bronson was a little taller… he would have survived’
She said she knew the pair had “a big Christmas dinner together”.
“All the food would have still been in the fridge,” she said.
“If only Bronson was a little bit taller, then he would have survived.
“The fridge would have been packed with Christmas leftovers.”
She said she was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened – and not being there for her son.
“It is haunting me,” she said.
“I jolt awake thinking of him wandering around alone, starving.
“He must have been so weak in the end that he decided to give up and hold on to his dad, hugging his legs.
“I will never forgive myself for not being there.
“When I picture him alone in that flat it makes me feel like a failure, cruel, selfish.”
Read more: A timeline of events leading up to toddler’s death
Bronson has been under children’s services care
‘My whole world fell apart’
Bronson’s Christmas present remains still wrapped up at her flat.
The last time she saw her son was in November because she and his father had fallen out.
“I will never stop regretting that now. I can’t sleep because every time I close my eyes I see his face,” she said.
She told of how she ran down the road screaming Bronson’s name when she learned the boy’s father had died – and a child was found at the scene.
“My whole world fell apart,” she said.
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The little boy had been under children’s services care. Ms Piesse blames social services for not doing more to help them.
Lincolnshire Police was contacted on two separate occasions by a Lincolnshire County Council social worker who got no answer when they tried knocking on the door of Mr Battersby’s home.
On 9 January, the social worker was given access to the property by the landlord – and the tragedy was discovered.
The council is reviewing the case, while the force has referred itself to the police watchdog.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
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Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
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