He was Australia’s own Baby Peter two decades before the little British boy was even born but his terrible plight – his suffering and his horrific death – changed the laws in Australia regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. The tiny injured face of little Daniel Valerio impacts on your soul and conscience just as devastatingly as it did when this photograph, taken by police, was first published after his violent death at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend in 1990.
2 year old Daniel Valerio weeks before his death.
This photograph was taken by police following ‘an incident’ reported by the child’s mother, Cheryle Butcher. Prior to Daniel’s death laws in the state of Victoria did not require doctors, teachers, etc, to report suspected child abuse – Daniel was seen by no fewer than twenty-one health workers in the months before his death and yet nobody did or said anything to save him. Daniel’s own brother Ben, who was only four years of age, repeatedly told adults about Aiton’s abuse. of them Just days before the child’s death police visited the house and saw both brothers bruised and battered – the brother went and fetched the stick Aiton had used on him and Daniel to prove what Aiton was doing. This child was four years old and trying to get the attention and help they needed; the police instead believed Aiton’s claims that the brother’s injuries were from playing and being ‘smacked by their mother’. Just days later Daniel was dead. Daniel was left by his mother in the ‘care’ of boyfriend, Paul Leslie Aiton, for a few hours and in that time Daniel’s body was beaten to a pulp by the 190kg thug. His internal organs were crushed from severe blows to his body – the coroner stated his injuries resembled those of a high impact car crash victim. The child had suffered a litany of abuse for months, details of which are so distressing I will leave it to yourself to follow the link and read for yourself. It makes me sick to read about it even after twenty years…
Child killer: Paul Leslie Aiton
Following Daniel’s death this photograph was released to a shocked and furious public – how was this allowed to happen?
His killer, Paul Leslie Aiton, has served his minimum term – 18 years in prison – and is now applying for parole. This MUST be denied, this sadistic, inhuman monster who reduced a two year old boy’s body to pulp, who tortured him and defiled his last months of life…no mercy for creatures like him, no mercy, no release.
Daniel Valerio, a beautiful precious little boy with his whole life ahead of him, was given a death sentence – Paul Leslie Aiton deserves the nearest thing possible that our laws of ‘justice’ can allow. The above photograph of Daniel was taken just days before he was killed; nobody did anything to stop that, no-one except for his own four year old brother and he had been effectively silenced.
Updated 13/01/11: Aiton Walks Free.
Silencing the Children: Report on Child Abuse, The Age, Melbourne.
Related posts:
- Tracy Lyons named as fourth paedophile in Vanessa George child abuse ring
- Dennis O’Neill, Maria Colwell, Jasmine Lorrington – a generation of child abuse and lessons still not learned
- Why Karen Matthews reminded me of a little Australian boy named John Ashfield.
- Wanted: for Compliance to Child abuse and murder – Haringey Council, North London.
- Horror in the UK: child found starved to death in Birmingham
Cheryle, let me teach you something i too had a husband who abused my kids but did i let them die…NO! they are still alive right now and thank me everyday from taking them away from my monster of a husband they had a twisted ankle bruises on their arm theywere pale and fearful my husband told me lame exuses for the bruises but i divorced him,kicked him before i moved out of theat house you disgust me cheryle you are not a mother you are an ignorant failure you cared about getting laid by a MONSTER instead of protecting poor little Daniel and Ben and your other kids R.I.P Daniel your legacy will live on forever
I’m only 14 years of age, and I have NEVER been so disgusted in my life. You should be ashamed of yourself Paul. You ended a child’s life. What did Daniel ever do to you? Nothing is my bet, and I am 100% sure, I am correct. You are a pathetic excuse for a human, and I hope you get beaten and earn yourself the pain you brought upon a defenceless child. You are a DISGUSTING excuse for a living human, and you make me embarrassed to be Australian.
mother? cheryl you dont deserve the title of “mother”. even animals, salvage animals protect their kids. is getting laid mmore important than ur TWO year old son?!! im 16 and i have a brother who is 5 and he is like me son, im a better “mother” to him than you will ever be! you are a disgrace, you dont deserve to have a life, and i still cant belive you were allowed to keep Ben. you are a distgusting human being and as for the guy Paul, word cannot describe what i feel for such a repugnant piece of shit like you!! poor little Daniel rest in peace you are in my heart <3
She wasn’t allowed to keep Ben or myself after Daniel died.
so sad !!!
i cant believe something like that could happen
grrrrrr!!!!
he should have the death sentence just like me because im a crazy biatch!
Cheryle, women like you deserve to die. Why should you still live while your child lies in a grave. What is the point of you living? you do not matter to anyone.
Go and die somewhere, and suffer too.
The poor little boy went through hell at least he’s in heaven looked after by the angles happliy.The stepfather will get hell in life and afterlife.
Cheryle, you are a whore and child killing b*tch. YOU married the penis that killed your own child and abused your other children. And you come here expecting sympathy and understanding? Yes, I have sympathy. For your children, now adults, who have to live with what they endured and seeing their brother killed. There is not one iota of sympathy for a child killing scumbag like you. You may not have delivered the blow that killed your son, but you sure as hell delivered him to be killed. Thus, you are a killer. And I have understanding, too. I understand what your children suffered and one who was killed because all you cared about was yourself. I also understand you knew about the suffering your children endured. Those pictures of your son says a lot. Just be glad you are not in my area so I could give you a taste of what they had to endure. Candice, your mother is scum. You just keep your head up high and always remember the love for your brother. Cheryle deserves to be beaten to death. Too bad we do not live under Hammurabi’s code.