Damning review finds baby Finley Boden died as result of abuse from parents despite being ‘protected’

Finley Boden’s parents, Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden, inflicted 130 injuries on their son before he fatally collapsed

Ten-month-old Finley Boden was murdered just weeks after he was returned to his parents’ care in 2020 (Derbyshire Police/PA) (PA Media)

A 10-month-old baby who was murdered by his parents just weeks after being placed back into their care “should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area”, a safeguarding review has concluded.

Finley Boden’s parents, Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden, inflicted 130 injuries on their son before he fatally collapsed at his family home in Old Whittington, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on Christmas Day 2020.

Finley had been returned to their care on November 17 that year by a family court, despite social services raising concerns over Boden and Marsden’s drug use and the state of the family home.

After returning home, Finley was subjected to a campaign of abuse and was found to have 130 separate injuries at the time of his death, as well as conditions including sepsis and pneumonia.

Marsden and Boden were handed life sentences with respective minimum terms of 27 and 29 years at Derby Crown Court in May.

On Wednesday, the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership published the findings of its Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review into Finley’s death.

The review, which has been anonymised, said: “In this instance, a child died as the result of abuse when he should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area.”

Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden (Derbyshire Police/PA) (PA Media)

The review stated that, while Finley’s parents were responsible for his death, “professional interventions should have protected him”.

It said the “most significant professional decision” was that he should live with his parents, and concluded that “the safeguarding environment in which that decision was made had been incrementally weakened by the decisions, actions, circumstances and events which preceded it”.

Most of what had been experienced by Finley in the final weeks of his life “was unknown to professionals working with the family at that time”, the report said.

But it added: “The review has found, nevertheless, that safeguarding practice during that time was inadequate.”

At their sentencing last year, Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples said Marsden and Boden were “persuasive and accomplished liars” who “brutally assaulted” their son.