Baby P’s mother was twice sent back to prison after forming intimate relationships with men she met online, the parole board has heard, as she makes her latest bid for freedom.
Tracey Connelly, 44, who was jailed over the death of her 17-month-old son Peter at their home in Tottenham, north London, on 3 August 2007, also had a fling with another prisoner behind bars.
Peter, who suffered more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back, was known as Baby P during his mother’s Old Bailey trial alongside her boyfriend and his brother.
The case sparked outrage as the child was on the at-risk register and received 60 visits from social workers, police and health professionals over eight months.
Connelly was given an indefinite sentence for public protection (IPP) with a minimum term of five years in 2009 after pleading guilty to causing or allowing Peter’s death.
She is making her seventh bid for freedom at a public parole hearing, which is being live-streamed from her prison to the International Dispute and Resolution Centre, in London.
Connelly, who asked to be called Tracey, could not be seen on screen, and some of her evidence will be heard in private.
The hearing was told she was first released on licence in 2013, but recalled to prison in 2015 for a breach of conditions after “secretly developing intimate personal relationships” online and had “incited” another resident at her accommodation to “engage in inappropriate behaviour”.
Her applications for release in 2015, 2017 and 2019 were rejected by the board, and while back in custody, she “developed an intimate relationship with another prisoner” which she hid from staff.
Connelly was freed from jail for a second time in July 2022 after the Parole Board found she was suitable for release, but again recalled to prison in September last year after breaching her licence conditions.
The parole hearing was told she “developed an intimate relationship with a man” she met online and concealed it from parole officers by deleting material from her phone to avoid being detected.
Connelly is allowed to have relationships but must report them.
She told her prisoner offender manager (POM) it made her feel “good” and “nice” and “she didn’t want to lose that”, and once she realised she had breached the conditions thought she “may as well enjoy it while it lasts”.
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Connelly now works on the care and supervision unit as an orderly in prison and is subjected to daily bullying, abuse and threats, including being spat at, the POM said.
The POM is recommending her re-release, but the application is opposed by Justice Minister David Lammy.
The three panel members, who have seen a 763-page dossier, will decide if she meets the test for release based on an assessment of her “risk to the public”.
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Statements from members of Peter’s family were not read in public, but the panel chair Sally Allbeury said they expressed “concerns about her potential release” and wanted “conditions to be put in place to protect them” if she is freed.
“We found these statements extremely moving. There can be no doubt Peter’s death has caused life-long harm to those who loved him and as such they are also victims of Ms Connelly’s offending,” she said.
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Connelly’s boyfriend, Steven Barker, who Peter called “dad”, was jailed for 12 years, and his brother, Jason Owen, was sentenced to six years on appeal after being convicted in relation to Peter’s death.
Their trial heard how Peter was subjected to a series of assaults of increasing violence for up to eight months before his death and Connelly was described by the sentencing judge as “manipulative and self-centred with a controlling side and a temper” who had prioritised her relationship with her partner.
