AS DETECTIVE Jon Wedger sat across from Tracey Connelly, he knew he was staring evil in the face.
The twisted mum had been called in for questioning on suspicion she was torturing a then 17-month-old Peter – or Baby P. Here, Wedger reveals the details of their intense interview for the first time – and tells how he watched in horror as she was freed from custody and went on to kill her own flesh and blood.
Connelly subjected the tragic tot to months of horrific abuse, resulting in more than 50 injuries, including a broken spine, and eventually leading to his death on August 3 2007.
A couple of days before little Peter died, his mum was called into a police station near where she lived in Haringey, North London, where a decision had to be made whether to hold her on remand or extend her bail, in relation to suspicions she’d been beating him.
Former Met detective Jon Wedger, part of the Child Abuse Investigation Command at the time, was given the opportunity to interrogate her – and said he quickly knew she was a “monster”.
Speaking to The Sun in light of Connelly’s latest prison freedom bid this week, the ex-cop said: “She’s a real piece of work. She spat in my face and called me a c***.”
She’s a real piece of work. She spat in my face and called me a c***
Ex-cop Jon Wedger,
It wasn’t Mr Wedger’s case, but he’d seen how it had been passed around the unit for months without any charges brought, despite strong suspicions of severe abuse, and with Peter having already been taken out of Connelly’s care twice by social services before being returned.
Following his encounter with the mum on that summer evening, he said he immediately pushed for the child to be put into protective custody and filed a report saying, “If this kid isn’t taken from the mum, he’s at serious risk”.
Dad-of-four Mr Wedger said his warnings were not listened to and she was released. Soon after that, Peter was dead.
‘They didn’t want me interviewing her’
His work during the interrogation has gone on to be praised, but he said: “Anyone with any investigative experience would have seen her [for what she was].”
Mr Wedger explained there was much trepidation from his colleagues.
“They didn’t want me interviewing her,” he continued – referring to his reputation for grilling suspects sometimes for hours, and it was close to a shift changeover.
“My colleague was told to give her a five-minute cursory interview and re-bail her,” Mr Wedger said.
He recalled how the evidence was mounting around Connelly’s abuse of her son, though it had been deemed by the local council the threshold wasn’t met for him to go into care.
As part of the interview, Mr Wedger had access to a file that had been compiled by a paediatrician from a hospital where some of Peter’s injuries had been treated weeks earlier.
“I read through it,” the ex-cop continued, and he was staggered, everything pointed towards brutal, sustained attacks.
He said after a cursory 10 minutes, the decision for Connelly’s bail was formally made.
Mr Wedger explained: “But I’m always given the opportunity to ask questions as the controlling officer.”
He said he asked Connelly, “Can we just clear up these injuries?”
The paediatric file detailed bruises on Peter’s face and back, and a two month old lesion on his head, among other wounds, which the paediatrician had deemed “conducive with a punch, a kick, a headbutt, and she was bang on”, said Mr Wedger.
He went on to describe Connelly’s account of how Peter sustained his injuries during their conversation as “laughable”.
Recalling what the mum told him, Mr Wedger said: “It was ‘oh no, he fell off a cushion, he got hit by another two-year-old kid with a soft teething ring and that caused a black eye’.
“I went along with it, that’s the game you play,” he continued. “I got her to accept ownership for these ridiculous accounts – there were so many injuries, I think at this point the kid had a fractured spine.”
He continued: “I said ‘before we finish, let me just go through what the paediatrician reckons to each individual injury’.
“She’s (Connelly) taken ownership for the injuries, she can’t then back track and say ‘I meant this or that’, I abolished any ambiguity,” he added.
Mr Wedger told the evil mum the report stated Peter’s injuries were conducive “with a high impact trauma with a solid object, or a fist”.
He said to her: “My opinion is this is what happened – I think he’s been punched.”
He then went on to “go through them one after the other”, with what the report said likely caused the injuries, with Connelly sat across from him growing more and more frustrated.
Mr Wedger said: “I outwitted her, and she lost the plot. She went from being this really sweet, smiley, nice person – in a heartbeat that psychopath came out and she stood up and went ‘you c***’ and gobbed in my face.”
Mr Wedger added: “I looked at her and went ‘Now that is the monster your son sees’. It was game over.”
I looked at her and went ‘Now that is the monster your son sees’. It was game over
Ex-cop Jon Wedger,
The ex-cop said he requested she be remanded in custody, but “she went home and then killed the child – and we could have saved him”.
Connelly, her partner Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen were all the following year convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child – with a court order initially preventing the naming of the victim, known until after the trial as Baby P.
Baby P’s horror abuse
Peter was born in March 2006, though his biological father left the family home in Haringey a few months later.
In November, his mum’s new boyfriend, Barker, moved in with her and Peter.
The following month, a GP noticed bruises on Peter’s face and chest, with his mum was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and him put into the care of a family friend.
The tot was, however, returned to his mum in January 2007.
Over the next few months, Peter was admitted to hospital twice, suffering from injuries including bruising, scratches and swelling on his head.
Connelly, then 27, was arrested for a second time that May.
A month later, a social worker spotted marks on the child and told the police, and a resultant medical examination concluded the bruising was due to child abuse, and he was again placed with a friend for safeguarding.
On July 25, Haringey Council’s Children & Young People’s Service sought legal advice, which suggested the “threshold for initiating care proceedings” had not been met.
Injuries to Peter’s face and hands were missed by a social worker five days later, after the boy was deliberately smeared with chocolate to hide them.
On August 1, Peter was examined by a locum paediatrician at a child development clinic at St Ann’s Hospital.
However, a post-mortem following the baby’s death on August 3 showed a broken back and broken ribs that likely went undetected.
The day prior to Peter’s death, Connelly was told she would not be prosecuted, but on August 3, an ambulance was called to the family home and the child was found unresponsive in his cot, wearing only a nappy.
He was rushed to North Middlesex Hospital but was pronounced dead at 12.20pm, with police immediately launching a murder investigation, and Connelly was arrested.
She pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person, while Owen, 36, and Barker, 32, were found guilty of the same charge in November 2008.
Owen and Connelly were cleared of murder due to insufficient evidence, while Barker was found not guilty of murder by a jury.
Connelly received a sentence of indefinite imprisonment for public protection, subject to a minimum term of five years.
The mum, now 42, was initially released on licence in 2013 but recalled to prison in 2015 for breaching parole conditions.
Parole bids, in 2015, 2017 and 2019, were rejected. She was eventually given parole in July 2022, but again breached her licence conditions and was recalled to prison in September last year.
Latest parole hearing
A parole hearing this week heard how Connelly had found herself back behind bars in August 2024 for breaching the terms of her licence – although the nature of the breach was not revealed at the time.
Wednesday’s hearing was told that Connelly was actually recalled back to prison after she started a relationship with a man she met online without telling the officials supervising her.
The court heard the situation “closely mirrored” that of her first recall, and when she was in custody following her return to prison, she also developed other intimate relationships with men met online.
Panel chairwoman Sally Allbeury said: “The 2013 panel considered there to be a major risk in the context of Ms Connelly developing an intimate relationship where she prioritises a partner’s needs and her own needs over those of children.
“Subsequent panels have had the same concerns.”
Panel members for Connelly’s review will assess whether to release her from prison or recommend that she be transferred to open prison conditions.
Connelly admitted during the hearing she’s a “c*** mum” and said she was living in her “own bubble” and could have done “a lot more” during the abuse of Peter.
She added: “I’m ashamed to admit I was in my own head, my own bubble, where I wanted my Prince Charming and unfortunately [Peter] paid for that.”
Three panel members, who have trawled through 763 pages of information, assessments and statements, will now decide if she should be released or transferred to open prison conditions.
The Baby P case sent shockwaves throughout the country, not only for the magnitude of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mum – but also the authorities’ failure to recognise the child as a victim and prevent it, despite countless opportunities.
The Sun has approached the Met for comment.
