Baby P chief: Ministers treated me like Jamie Bulger's killers

Sharon Shoesmith, the Haringey official sacked in the wake of the Baby P scandal is claiming she has been treated as badly by Ministers as the killers of James Bulger.

Lawyers for Mrs Shoesmith say her treatment by Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary was driven by a public outcry, similar to the way the Bulger killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were given 15-year prison sentences on the orders of then Home Secretary Michael Howard.

He was later overruled by the House of Lords.

Mrs Shoesmith, 56, was the £133,000-a-year head of Haringey children's services department before being sacked by Mr Balls in December last year after a report found evidence of devastating failures by the authority in the Baby P case.

Mrs Shoesmith is bringing three separate legal actions over her dismissal.

Baby P, now known by his real name as Peter Connelly, was tortured and beaten at the Tottenham home occupied by his mother, Tracey Connelly, 28, her boyfriend Steven Barker, 33, and his brother, Jason Owen, eventually being found dead from numerous injuries in August 2007.

All three are now in prison for allowing the abuse to occur.

Social workers from Mrs Shoesmith's department, as well as police, doctors and health visitors saw Peter many times during the abuse, but missed vital evidence and took no action to protect him.

The similarities to the Bulger case are outlined in the summary of the action for judicial review Mrs Shoesmith is bringing over the decision to sack her.

According to reports today, Tony Child, her lawyer, argues that the case has strong parallels' with the Bulger case and that the Secretary of State has fallen into the same error.'

Mr Balls acted wrongly, he claims, because of the intense media pressure being applied,' adding: "The Secretary of State in acting as he did acted unlawfully in what seems to have been a knee-jerk reaction to press coverage."

According to the lawyer's submission, Mrs Shoesmith was at the centre of a media storm' being harrased on a daily basis by journalists and also received death threats.

The sacking should be quashed, he maintains, because Mr Balls acted having regard to irrelevant matters, for an improper purpose and irrationally.'

The Children's Secretary, he said, acted without any regard for natural justice.'

In the Bulger case, in 1993, Mr Howard controversially used his powers as Home Secretary to order that Venables and Thompson, then both 11, should serve at least 15 years in prison.

Cancelling his order, the House of Lords decreed that Mr Howard had given too much weight to public opinion; they were released after eight years.

The judicial review, which is also being brought against Ofsted and Haringey Council, is due to be heard in the High Court next month.

Mrs Shoesmith is also bringing an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination and a separate action for breach of contract.