About Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures
Child Protection Files covers real child protection cases in depth- cases that have already gone through the courts, inquests, and public inquiries- so nothing discussed here is speculation about an ongoing matter.
Each episode goes beyond the headlines: the full timeline, the trial, the judge's own words, and the public inquiry that followed. But the real focus is the profession itself: the caseworkers, police officers, and doctors involved; the caseloads and supervision failures behind the individual decisions; and what, if anything, changed in child protection practice afterwards.
This isn't true crime for shock value. It's a closer look at how these systems work, where they break down, and what the people doing this work today can actually learn from cases that came before.
New episodes are posted [insert your schedule once you've settled on one]. Episodes contain detailed descriptions of child abuse and neglect; listener discretion is strongly advised throughout
If you have any feedback or want any specific case covered, please email me at files@childprotectionfiles.com (mailto:files@childprotectionfiles.com)
The Missing Boy of Canberra (Australia): Bradyn Dillon full Case file
Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/child-protection-files-real-cases-real-system-failures/voicemail)
The Bradyn Dillon Case
In February 2016, nine-year-old Bradyn Dillon was killed by his father in Canberra. In the two years before that, teachers, child protection, police, a GP, and a Victorian court had seen him. At least eight agencies across the ACT and Victoria had contact with him.
This episode follows the case from the first school reports of bruising to the 2021 coronial findings. It covers how a father's lies went unchecked, how a disclosure made in Victoria never reached Canberra, how a case was closed because a frightened child "wasn't saying anything", and how one unenrolment left Bradyn off every list.
Coroner Margaret Hunter found that Graham Dillon was a "master manipulator" and the sole person responsible. She also described "sliding door moments" where the system could have taken a different path, and made 17 recommendations.
For professionals, the episode draws out six practice strands: hearing the child, cumulative harm and domestic violence, how assessments are passed on, cross-border information sharing, tracking children outside school, and workload and supervision. It ends with six reflective questions.
This episode discusses child abuse and the death of a child. Details are kept non-graphic. Content is drawn from news reporting of the inquest and findings, and the episode says where information could not be found.
Hosted by a social worker with more than fourteen years of industry experience.
Subscribe, rate and share with someone who works in child protection.
10 Oct 2026
Pulled From School, Gone From View: Khyra Ishaq Full Case file
Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/child-protection-files-real-cases-real-system-failures/voicemail)
Khyra Ishaq: Five Months at Home (Case File)
On the morning of 17 May 2008, an ambulance was called to a house in Handsworth, Birmingham. Paramedics found seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq dead. She weighed thirty-seven pounds, and the Court of Appeal later noted that the house held an abundance of good, wholesome food. Five months earlier she had been a pupil with a perfect attendance record. In December 2007 her school reported that she had been taking food. That same month her mother wrote to say she would educate her at home.
This is the case file on Khyra Ishaq. I follow how the one institution that saw her every day dropped out of her life, and how a school's concern about food went into a referral that was inaccurately recorded and then lost. I also cover the serious case review, the first in England to be published in full. It found that some agencies lost sight of the child, and that home education law gave local authorities no power to monitor or inspect. I cover the two prosecutions and sentences, the 2011 Court of Appeal judgment, and Angela Gordon's release in 2017. I say plainly where the record runs out, including the outcome of the social workers' disciplinary and regulatory processes.
I also draw on more than fourteen years of social work practice to look at six areas, and end with questions for professionals.
Chapters (approximate):
Cold open: the 999 call
The family before Junaid Abuhamza
December 2007: the food, the letter, the school gap
Home education and the doorstep problem
The serious case review
What happened to the professionals
The trials, the pleas and the sentences
The Court of Appeal and release
Six strands for professionals
Questions to take back to your practice
Content note: The episode discusses the starvation and death of a child. The script deliberately avoids a detailed account of what the children went through, in line with the court's own approach.
7 Oct 2026
Who Took Rilya Wilson? Full case file for Rilya Wilson
Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/child-protection-files-real-cases-real-system-failures/voicemail)
In the spring of 2002, a Florida state worker went looking for a four-year-old girl in a foster home. She wasn't there. The woman caring for her said a stranger claiming to work for the state had taken her away for an evaluation, fifteen months earlier. In that time the Department of Children and Families had kept paying for her care, and one court report said she was safe in her caretaker's home.
This is the case file on Rilya Wilson. I follow the case from her removal as a baby to her placement with a caregiver whose own record the agency never uncovered, then to the caseworker whose visits stopped while her paperwork continued. I cover the 2013 conviction of Geralyn Graham, and I say plainly what the court record leaves unresolved: Rilya's body has never been found, and no court has ruled on what happened to her.
I also draw on more than fourteen years of social work practice to look at six areas: the gap between records and reality, caseworker caseloads, background checks that can't see a person using dozens of names, the money that kept flowing, and what accountability looks like when a child is never found. The episode ends with six questions for professionals.
Chapters (approximate):
Cold open: the visit that found nobody
Rilya's early life and the fragmented family
The caregiver the agency didn't check
The caseworker and the fifteen months
How the disappearance came to light
The investigation, the charges and the trial
What the court record does and doesn't establish
Six strands for professionals
Questions to take back to your practice
Content note: The episode discusses the abuse and death of a child. The script deliberately leaves out some details from the court record. Discretion advised
Contact Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Child Protection Files: Real Cases, Real System Failures?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
