Brandon Muir - Rest In Peace

This is, or was, Brandon Muir. He lived in Dundee. His only crime was that he was born to a prostitute, heroin addict. A boyfriend of his mother, in her absence (she was out selling her body), grabbed the child and swung him by the arms and released him in full swing to smash into a wall at the other end of the room. When his mother returned, she 'thought him unwell. as he was lying there with his eyes rolling around in his head, obviously in great pain, totally gone, already his brain was beyond repair.  she did nothing. Look carefully at the image, at his 'joy' at opening presents at either Xmas or his birthday. Look at the fear, mistrust and total sadness in his eyes. This 23 month old toddler had known no love, no companionship and only fear and terror as to where and when the next smash would come from. When he would lie crying in his cot, in pain, trying to go to sleep and a short respite from the brutality of this man. I cried as I read the report on the net of his death, lying there for possibly hours before his so called mother came home from earning her junkie dose. I also ask the question. Why do the authorities continue to allow children in these desperate situations stay there, knowing full well that the care and well being of the CHILD is the paramount concern and NOT the hooker mother.?

Pathologists who conducted a post-mortem examination on Brandon's body found cuts and bruises on his head, shoulder blades, abdomen, back, hands and abrasions on the inside of his eye. Police reports said the injuries dated from the last three weeks of Brandon's life, the period after Cunningham had moved into the family home in Balunie Crescent. Cunningham was convicted of culpable homicide after jurors took just one hour and 25 minutes to return their majority verdict. Brandon Muir died at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee on 16 March 2008 after suffering what the jury was told would have been a painful death.

The Killer

TWISTED Robert Cunningham was a cowardly thug who had a history of torturing children. The 23-year-old jobless heroin addict had also been linked to sex attacks on women and stood trial for rape. He was twice accused of flashing, although only ever convicted and given prison time for housebreaking and breaching bail. Friends and former associates describe him as a bully who got his kicks preying on those weaker than him. But he was left sobbing in fear when confronted by someone as strong as him. After getting into a brawl with a neighbour, Cunningham lost a shoe and limped round to a friend's house in tears.

The friend said: "It's not like the guy hit him that hard but he was a wimp when it came to fighting with anyone his own size." Children bore the brunt of Cunningham's brutality - with 23-month-old Brandon Muir dying at his hands.

A former pal of Cunningham saw him throw a toddler so hard against a cot that it smashed. Another said she saw him blowing in the face of a newborn baby because he thought it was funny when the child struggled to catch a breath.

On another occasion, Cunningham screamed in the face of the same baby because he was livid it was crying. He called one toddler he was in contact with b*****d so often that the child thought that was one of its names.

His victim will now cover its ears whenever there is any loud noises or talking. Another friend was shocked when she saw him throw a child against a table. The woman said: "He belted the kid and the kid was screaming.

"It was horrible. Robert would just lose it." A child who touched a cream couch where Cunningham was living was punished by being made to sit on the floor with his hands crossed on his lap for three hours.

If the child moved, Cunningham would lash out. The toddler was left so traumatised that, from then on, he would only touch the couch with the back of his hands. In court, the girlfriend Cunningham was involved with before Brandon's mother said she often fought with him over the way he treated a child. She described how he would smack the child if he was bad, shout and swear at him, put him in his bedroom or make him sit beside a wall. She said Cunningham would make him sit against the wall for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. He would also make the child sit on the floor for two to three hours because he was "angry". When the child cried, he would taunt him and call him a cry-baby.

He thought that it was funny when the toddler got upset. But - perhaps through fear of retaliation - none of the people who witnessed his behaviour towards youngsters informed the police. It was a different story in 2005 when he stood trial for raping a teenager. She had accused Cunningham - then 18 - of attacking her on September 16, 2003, in a flat in Dundee's Balunie Crescent. It was the same street in which Brandon was killed. The victim claimed Cunningham grabbed her, forced her to kiss him and straddled her as he stripped her naked then raped her.

He failed to appear at the High Court in Edinburgh on May 7, 2004, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. But police had no idea where he was. When the case called again at the High Court in Forfar the following month, he also failed to show and the warrant was extended. Detectives finally caught up with him and he appeared back in Edinburgh on March 30, 2005, when he faced two charges - one of rape and one over the bail violation. Cunningham's trial started on May 16, 2005, in front of Lord Hardie at the High Court in Dundee. It lasted three days. The witnesses included police officers and medical experts but a jury decided that the case was not proven. However, Cunningham was sentenced to six months' jail for the bail offences.

Later the same year, he was the chief suspect in two sex attacks on young females. Tayside detectives hauled him in for questioning over allegations that he twice exposed himself to youngsters while sitting on a bike. But he was never arrested or charged and the cases were dropped. In February 2006, Cunningham received a hefty community service order for breaking into a house in Dundee. He was collared for the same offence less than 10 months later and jailed for three months. Last night, a police source said: "Cunningham is well known to our officers. He has been for some time and he is never far from trouble. "He has a significant heroin addiction and his housebreaking in 2006 was undoubtedly to fund his habit. "We're pretty sure he's been involved in a fair amount of minor criminality across Dundee over the last few years to help him acquire drugs. "We've also come across him during various domestic disputes but nothing severe enough to warrant us taking further action." With Cunningham dishing out beatings and abuse behind closed doors, his victims were often too scared to press charges.

Ex-girlfriend Nikita Bowman, 19, was terrorised and regularly beaten by Cunningham when they were together. He punched her, kicked her and held her down by the throat. They started dating when she was only 13 and Cunningham was 18. She said he treated her relatively well at first. After a few months, they split up but got back together when she was 16. It was then that she saw a very different side to him. She said: "I was scared what he would do to me. He would just lose the plot and hit me. "I was really frightened of him. He was evil."

On one occasion, she had to jump out of a window to escape after he shoved her into an empty bath and pinned her down by the neck. Nikita said: "I don't even know what started it but he just went nuts. I thought he was going to kill me." She got used to regular beatings, sometimes a whack on the arm, at other times a kick in the stomach. At the flat they shared, he smashed all the doors from their hinges. But despite the kick he got from abusing women, Cunningham fancied himself as a ladies' man. He had sex with Brandon's mum, Heather Boyd, in the flat he was sharing with Nikita when she went to the shops. He also propositioned Nikita's sister, Cheyanne, when they were all at the same party. Cunningham threatened to sexually assault her while she slept. Cheyanne said: "He was really dirty and sleazy. "He said I should go to to bed with him and when I told him he was a disgusting pig, he said he would wait until I was asleep and feel me up. "I hated him. He was evil. I'm not surprised he killed Brandon and I hope he rots in hell."

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to hear the news he was found dead, in his cell, horribly mutilated.

How many thousands of other children are, right now, at this precise moment, in tears, in pain, in TERROR, in total abject misery and the authorities know, and do nothing?

In the name of Brandon Muir, Baby P and all the other poor infants who suffer mindless violence; my thoughts and hopes are with you. Sadly, in today's society, the criminal is more likely to be cared for than you, the terrorised toddler.  you are dead, you are gone, I never knew you, and never will, but you are in my mind, forever.

 She didn't!

Children's Departments Do your jobs - unlike Dundee or Haringay ........