Chadrack & Esther
Four-year-old Chadrack Mulo starved to death following the sudden death of his mother Esther Eketi-Mulo during an epileptic fit. Chadrack had both learning difficulties and autism and it is believed that he spent two weeks alone before he died – he was found clinging to his mother’s body. The coroner describes the scene:
‘The likelihood is that Chadrack lived alone in the family home for over a fortnight after his mother’s death. He was found a couple of days after his own death, with his arms around her body. She was by then very decomposed’.
The coldness of the description is palpable. What Chadrack went through during those two weeks of isolation, unable to feed himself or even to call someone for help, is unimaginable.
His neighbour, Justin King, had been visiting family in Africa at the time, and therefore hadn’t been in a position to help. Commenting on the tragedy, he stated: ‘It is so sad. It makes me so upset when I think I could have been his saviour, but I just didn’t think anything was wrong.’ Not only was Chadrack unable to feed himself, he was also unable to call for help as a result of his autism. Another neighbour, a mother herself, couldn’t keep from questioning her own culpability. ‘I keep thinking to myself: ‘Did I hear him? Did I hear him next door? But he never spoke. Never.’
However, to focus on the hopelessness and sadness within Chadrack’s story is to overlook other crucial areas of neglect. Not only did Chadrack die, but this was a direct consequence of his mother, Esther’s, death. And yet, it is never Esther whom the articles concentrate on, or tell the story of, even though she is half of this tragic whole. Both mother and son died , because they were failed by the system together. To understand this story, we have to go back to Chadrack’s birth, as explained to us by the Multi-Agency Case Review, carried out by the City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Board following Chadrack’s death.
Esther travelled to the UK from Congo, to join her parents and sister who were already in residence here, and lived close to the Trelawney Estate in Hackney where Esther and Chadrack eventually lost their lives. Very little is known about Esther preceding this point, apart from her relationship with Chadrack’s father, also from Congo, but this ended before their sons birth. When Esther eventually presented at a hospital in Hammersmith, her pregnancy was in the very late stages. She had had no antenatal care, and hospital staff describe her as ‘vague’. Staff also worried about her ability to care for her baby, given that she seemed to have ‘little support’. Esther’s epilepsy was noted, however it was also evident that she didn’t have medical support for it nor was she on any medication. Esther clearly has barely any support with her own medical condition, let alone the strenuous care that her son eventually required, and yet she is discharged from the hospital following the birth with no support either from social services or a medical advisor for her epilepsy. Despite the hospital attempting to refer Esther to Hackney Children’s Social Care (CSC), after reviewing the case, they decide that no further action is considered necessary.
Chadrack was born on the 2nd of January 2012. The following year, in January 2013, yet another referral is made to the CSC, and another assessment is undertaken. Once again, it is decided that no further action is required. The following year, in September 2014, Esther presents at the hospital having suffered an epileptic seizure. She tells hospital staff that she is epileptic and that she has not had any medication for three years. They advise her to visit her GP, and request a neurology referral. It is worth keeping in mind here that Esther enrolled herself on an English language course around this time, demonstrating her difficulties with the language. Hospital staff simply telling her to contact her GP, rather than attempting to help her with this process, is symptomatic of the neglect that both Esther and her son received both before and after death.
Unsurprisingly, Esther attended her GP, telling them that she was having difficulty making an appointment for her neurology referral. She was advised to book another appointment with a French interpreter, even though Esther had already explained her inability to use the online booking system. Esther never contacted the GP again and did not schedule another appointment. Evidently, she was tired of trying to jump through hoops, and this neglect led to the withholding of essential help.
Nothing more is heard from Esther and Chadrack through official channels until their death. Chadrack’s absence was discussed at length by the Morningside Primary School (where Chadrack attended) who also contacted a SWIS social worker. The response was that further contact with Chadrack following his absence should only attempt to be made if they believed that Esther was a threat to the child. They also recommended penning a handwritten letter, to be delivered to Esther, advising her that her son would lose his school place if he was further absent. Esther, by that point, was already dead, having died around October 1st or 2nd from an epileptic fit.
The Multi-Agency Case Review emphasises that the deaths of Esther and Chadrack were unpredictable. It is not foreseeable that Esther, without either family or medical support, and Chadrack, who also required specialised support, would suffer dire consequences if that support was denied.
The school, despite discussing Chadrack’s case at length, gave up contacting him when they couldn’t enter his flat building in Hackney. ‘We followed our procedure for checking on children missing from school’, says Janet Taylor, the headteacher at Morningside, ‘Since his death we have worked closely with the authorities to consider what more schools can do in situations like this.’ Morningside Primary School now takes contact numbers for three family members, more than only one. But there is more palpable coldness in Taylor’s words that is mirrored in the headlines:
Boy, 4, died alone in Hackney flat two weeks after his mother’s death.
This title of the article from The Guardian, doesn’t even allow Chadrack a name. He becomes noted as Boy’. Neighbours, when asked about why they didn’t notice the smell of decomposition, which was reportedly strong from the very lift of the building, claimed that they ‘thought the strong smell coming from the flat was Esther’s cooking.’ highlights a much wider problem, a much more insidious attitude towards Black life, towards the lives of two Black, disable people. The lack of humanisation allowed this little boy in his moment of sheer and unending vulnerability is disturbing, and typical of the treatment of Black people both societally and in media coverage.
The story is haunting because it embodies levels of hopelessness that continue to be overlooked Following Chadrack’s death in 2017, the coroner called on the Government to create an alert system for schools to be put in place when young children are absent unexpectedly. This system is yet to be put into place. Chadrack Mulo was left alone for two weeks at four years old but this failing hasn’t been enough to incite the government to attempt to prevent that from happening to any other child.
I remember hearing the news of Chadrack’s death back in 2017, a stark and indelible marker of unique neglect within the intersection of racism and ableism in the United Kingdom. This story also sharply highlights the constant bureaucratic systems that devalue Black life. Humanising accounts note Chadrack as sweet and kind, incredibly shy and absolutely devoted to his mother. A Congolese shopkeeper who saw Esther practically every day, described her as ‘happy’ and ‘humble’, and said that Chadrack was her ‘pride and joy’.
One of the final pictures that Esther posted on Facebook showed Chadrack in his new school uniform. She captioned the picture with only one word: ‘Love.’