‘More deaths if schools don’t teach about abuse’

A Liberal Democrat MP today warned of further tragedies such as that of murdered four-year-old Daniel Pelka if school lessons about domestic violence are not made compulsory.

Tessa Munt, MP for The Wells, suggested Daniel’s classmates might have told teachers about the horrific abuse he suffered had they been taught about domestic violence.

She also lashed out at Education Secretary Michael Gove, accusing him of “perpetuating” domestic abuse by failing to legally require schools to teach about it. Ms Munt told the Standard: “This kind of education may well have made a difference in Daniel’s case.

“If you are taught as a child that it’s not right when a parent or one of your siblings is hit, then you’re more likely to tell someone about it.”

Daniel, from Coventry, died after months of cruelty at the hands of his mother Magdelena Luczak and stepfather Mariusz Krezolek. He had been denied food, force-fed salt, held under water until unconscious and regularly beaten. In March 2012 he was left in a dark, unheated room for 33 hours before dying from a head injury.

Luczak and Krezolek were sentenced to 30 years each for murder at Birmingham crown court earlier this year.

Ms Munt said: “Often abused children and their siblings are told something bad will happen if they speak out, and that threat is so powerful.

“But it is not as frightening if the child has already been taught they will be safe when they do. That message needs to be taught in schools repeatedly.

“If you don’t ensure this stuff is in the curriculum, you are perpetuating the problem. I would like to confront Michael Gove with that.”

A spokesman from the Department for Education said: “We expect teachers to ensure all pupils develop an awareness of the issues around physical violence and abuse and as part of sex and relationship education.”