"If a woman had been raped, you wouldn't wait around for a few days arranging meetings with your partner organisations," says Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Spindler. "You'd be getting on with the job immediately, securing the crime scene and looking for the suspect."
Too often, he says, there is delay when children are harmed. Exasperation crosses his face as he tells of a case just reported to police of a critically injured baby: "This happened 10 days ago - 10 days!"
Before the central Child Protection Command, now headed by Spindler, was formed three-and-a-half years ago after the Victoria Climbie case, even police officers in some areas of London tended to wait and hold meetings with partners rather than act straight away, he says.
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