A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy hanged himself after suffering severe neglect and witnessing chronic domestic violence for years, an investigation has found.

The child, known only as Gavin in the report, was from Stockton and hanged himself in his bedroom eight days before his tenth birthday where he was found by his sibling. He died nine months later in May this year.

A 76-page Serious Case Review revealed he had been the subject of a child protection plan on three separate occasions.

However, it also found the death was not preventable.

The report found that Gavin, the eldest of three children and a British junior wrestling champion, had previously been the subject of child protection plans due to neglect.

Various authorities, including the police, had been involved with the family going back to 2005 and the review said his younger siblings had been “experiencing poor home conditions and witnessing chronic domestic violence and abuse”.

However, the last child protection plan ended in May, 2012, more than a year before he hanged himself in August, 2013.

The independent author of the report, Mike Harrison, said the boy had been "a beautiful singer" who was popular with his classmates.

Gavin had been on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but the review said there was no history of self harm.

The investigation concluded: “Ultimately the ending of the child protection plan in May 2012 probably had little connection to the incident that led to the commission of this serious case review. (However) it is difficult to conclude other than the decision to end the child protection plan at the time it was ended was insufficiently supported by evidence and was probably unwise.”

The Serious Case Review highlighted some missed opportunities to keep Gavin safe including:

*not locating information on Gavin's father's history which would have helped assess whether he could successfully parent.

*Insufficiently robust protection plans.

*Lack of understanding about programmes available to assist violent abusers, like Gavin's father.

*Professionals were "ineffective" in helping Gavin express his fears. He was not seen alone.

The report recommended a review be taken of children's services in Stockton; a communication strategy be developed to ensure frontline professionals know what service programmes are available to help troubled families; efforts made to ensure key school workers are able to recognise and deal with safeguarding issues and a comprehensive, multi-agency review of record keeping should take place.

The Independent Chair of the Stockton Local Safeguarding Children Board, Colin Morris, said the case was tragic and his thoughts were with the family. He added: “The independent author has made a number of recommendations to improve multi-agency working. Some of these recommendations have already been implemented while a number of others are well under way.”