[Music] tonight can childhood obesity equal child abuse through the way they're treating him and feeding him they're slowly killing him they love him they actually love him to death her family's dilemma make him lose weight or potentially lose him if he ever gets taken into cave I think that would be the finish of me I love that little boy so much I give my life for him willingly should social services intervene the truth is that you are slowly killing this little boy you love I think that's how serious it is [Music] good evening if you fed your child so much that he or she became massively overweight would you be guilty of abuse Conor McCready is only eight years old but he weighs an incredible 15 Stone tomorrow A Child Protection conference in townside will discuss whether Conor's mother is looking after him properly ultimately if Conor is taken into care because of his obesity it'll be one of the first cases of its kind in this country for the last month our cameras have been following Conor and his family and Fiona Foster has this exclusive report s Connor McCready five foot one and a massive 15 Stone he's four times the weight of an average eight-year-old he's broken six toilet seats and four beds his size brings serious physical and medical problems his home life is full of difficulties he misses school but otherwise he's just a regular child oh I forgot my eye and this is where Connor lives good morning I know somebody who's pretending happy birthday today is his eighth birthday his mum's still in bed in the same room and as usual Grandma's popped around to get him ready for school all right take your time your knees saw [Music] how and that's what you wanted yeah well how did I know Connor is at the extreme end of a 21st century epidemic in child obesity in just three years it's thought a million British children will be obese and Connor's condition dominates his life yes it has difficulty well most things but he has difficulty with his little bits so they need to be washed down right you um let's do your face done right I'm gonna get you some whole new Trust what we're gonna do hey yeah Connor you need to get dressed darling you can play with them when you come from school he's done very well he got into his trousers quite good but it can't get down to his feet it's it's too uncomfortable and and too difficult and he's walking pretty bad at the moment because the stream is all on the knees and don't want things like arthritis and things setting in problems like that have been building his whole life because Connor constantly craves food taking food out of the fridge the minute you turn your back I think as well he wants the toilet but he'll fill his pocket full of food flush the toilet and buy a man back out to play and it's not maybe so later on that evening or in the morning that should realize where is all the crisps gone oh it's half a packet of biscuits where's the hum and you won't Pinch A Slice into a half a packet and there's one level we will not go to we will not put a lock on the fridge so um yes yes I do the new ones on Saturday I think things slow oh you cannot readers you don't have to rush because you're late sweetheart I don't want to get no to breath [Music] [Applause] [Music] we all know there's an epidemic of obesity and that britons are getting heavier and heavier but the question at the center of Connor's troubled life is this who exactly is to blame for his size is his mother guilty of child abuse for allowing him to get so big and so unhealthy or should the authorities have done much more to help Connor's home is in North tyneside it's a two-up two down Council house in Wall's end near Newcastle that's just uh try to see if that oh we're in oh rise and shine I'll make a cup of coffee you'll need a medication anyway Nicola are you awake enough Corner's mum Nicola McEwen has been a single parent to him and his sister for three years right it's coffee time Nicola suffers from severe depression not least because of her eight-year-old's constant demand for food just right now at this point it's my lowest point with Connor is weight health housing even it's it's terrible you you're so alone in this black place and you're trying to fail to get out of it but it just seems like a vicious circle they're going round and round and you can't get out foreign people don't realize just how difficult it is for the parents the constant demand for food oh we have the mood and the Tantrums and the slamming the doors with a depression and with a physical problem she has just quite poorly at the moment um there's days where she just said well just take another bag of crisps just take another bag of crisps so the constant demand is actually pulled my daughter's Health very low and now that the authorities have set up a child protection conference to try to tackle Conor's obesity Nicola is worried since that's all turned around and I'm getting blamed for it all but I would like to see them caught with a hungry child 24 7. and constantly at your naganya I would love them to actually have to handle Conor just for a couple of days that soon want to give him back they couldn't cope so when did they come with the family afraid that this conference will result in Conor being taken into care I met them at Grandma Barbara's house the truth is that you are slowly killing this little boy you love that's the bottom line I mean that's how serious it is well that's why we're determined to get the help and get something done now because when all of the consequences how do you view the future Nicola well I'll fill you that something can be done and be a turning point and wouldn't help Connor lose the weight that he needs to lose and that before he gets too old you'll be fit and healthy [Music] scale of our obesity problem is frightening a government report estimates that by 2010 that's just three years away around a fifth of children and thirty percent of adults in Britain will be obese and the serious health risks facing Conor like diabetes and heart disease are very well known we showed Connor's stats to this consultant pediatrician of 25 years experience he's never treated a child of such extreme obesity so where is Connor on your charts here you can see this is where one would move God is overweight that's 25. that's you would regard as obese which is 30. unfortunately this up there is where Connor is sitting completely off the chart he was at a range this is eight years old 15 Stone what are the problems being stored up for the future here I think we're looking at a child who's going to be exceedingly unhappy exceedingly unhealthy and probably facing early death clearly his family love him absolutely they love him but they actually love him to death um literally in fact I'm not saying they can't care for him but what they're doing is through the way they're treating him and feeding him they're slowly killing him so this expert believes the best solution is doctors social services and the family all pulling together so how important is it then that the family are completely on board the two ways of doing this either the family have to be completely on board if they're not and if they have clearly no intentions of being on board then one does have to consider the DraStic steps of removing him from the family environment altogether is it tantamount to child abuse as far as I'm concerned this is their form of child abuse not done intentionally but the result is child abuse it's obvious these two friends are also eight years old teen year old sister Sasha knows only too well where that weight has come from so it used to be Burgers sausages chips all the time Kebab meat he loves Curry at the moment do it again yeah what else is your favorite chips chips for everything and why I'm sitting on the computer all day long it will be back downstairs my sausage sandwiches sausage on tours Burgers on toast ginger cat looking at all the birds junk food all day long whilst they're sitting on the computer and that didn't help not at all biscuits biscuits and chocolate I used the stuff didn't you places where we couldn't find them behind my um underneath videos they always feel hungry as it just when you're bored sometimes I'm bored sometime [ __ ] so [Music] oh and after all that exercise Connor's appetite is as big as ever although his mum is trying to change his unhealthy habits generally Lacey's chips but he does like mashed potato won't you buy potatoes healthier he has one Double Trouble what a normal Samuel or what have I think but if I didn't give him enough a tea time then he just wanted us all night for snacks and stuff until he did feel full um cut these portions and I'm going to continue to do so until greatly reduced in size as well there's no doubt Connor's weight is a problem but should the authorities intervene well there is something of a legal precedent but the victim isn't what you'd expect this was Rusty the labrador shortly after the rspca took him into care he weighed in at a massive 11 and a half stones and could hardly walk just last month these two brothers were convicted in court of causing unnecessary suffering by overfeeding their pet dog that has led some experts to question why a dog appears to get more protection than a child [Music] Tam Frye has been campaigning on child growth issues for 30 years when I heard about this case I thought how amazing that we should take two men to court for over feeding their dog yet we allow our children to develop into obese children without Society really seeming to care about it and that I found to be an extremely uncomfortable thought and with an estimated 30 000 people dying prematurely each year in Britain because of obesity he says it's time for drastic action what kind of Crisis Point have we reached now would you say we've come to the point where a lot of the things which we have never ever dared think about such as surgery for children such as child protection are really starting now to become serious issues with which we must grapple we have spent a long time trying to do something within the confines of normal behavior but now we have to start thinking about Extreme Measures if we're going to pull this thing into any kind of shape [Music] but there are some projects that can help before things reach such a desperate state this project teaches new habits of healthy eating and physical exercise but it doesn't just involve obese kids their parents have to take part as well what do you think mellow well done that one down do you like it yeah okay foreign this club is helping around a dozen children with weight problems there's individual support personalized plans realistic goals and lots of fun so what's the secret then would you say of a club like this well the club here in Walsall um the real secret I think is about the kids being engaged and having fun and the parents being involved but across the country there are only six of these courses well we should have Services appropriate Services which are based on good practice and the evidence that is out there such as this program and we should have them in every community in the country so that we can help to facilitate the changes that parents and children need to make and not just kind of assume that it's as simple as well you just need to eat less and exercise more because it isn't and we need to provide that support okay to step on the scales and look straight forwards Samantha woolwork is one of the course's success stories so why did you decide to come here in the first place because I didn't want to end up like my mum the beach children end up getting bullied whether it's physical variable or the fact that they just get left out and things and then by the time they get to be saddles then they've got all the health problems with it as well um which I've got quite a few of them so I didn't want Samantha to be in the same book what do you eat now I have like a sausage instead from the Chip Shop have salad with it an excellent shot okay ready Samsung steam broccoli and how did you find it it's okay I hate parsnip that is awesome it's the week before half term and eight-year-old Connor has missed three days of school mom over the academic year he's attended only a quarter of his lessons and sister Sasha isn't happy and neither guys cause he shouldn't be at home all day long you should be at school learning playing with his friends having us dinner it's just a routine you should be in every kid needs to go to school when I got up this morning he looked perfectly fine to me he's been jumping on the sitting I mean he has been the doctors that says there's something wrong with him but if he can do that in the house he could have done it at school it's just pushing them like a little bit further and hopefully it will help him as well because when he's at school you only get a break and then your lunch you don't you're not eating as a lot of school and your meals are only little actually I should probably be weird a lot as well in the Northeast one in eight eleven-year-olds is obese that's one reason why Commerce school has an obesity nurse but if he's not there he can't get that support the authorities say repeated offers of help haven't been taken up by the family Connor's mum says she's only been given advice if it can call it our face it's cut down his food intake watch his weight could have always been doing I think someone should have stepped in when he got about two and a half and he started getting quite heavy and someone should just come and see his look there's it died she'd follow that or there's something but nothing nothing whatsoever and now that the authorities have organized Tomorrow's Child Protection conference the family fears that Conor may be taken into care terrible really terrible receiving this letter I don't know whether I like to put them on the the protection or just a child in need I don't see how they can say we're not doing enough when everyone's rallying around to try and do some of our corner this is where the child protection conference will take place tomorrow it will be an opportunity for a number of agencies and Connor's family to decide how best to work together to sort out his problems putting Connor onto a child protection list or taking him into care would only happen as a very last resort and the British Association of Social Workers supports such a conference which will assess whether Connor faces any risk it's been set up under Section 47 of the children's act 96 of all our cases that we investigate under sector 47 that children remain with their families we have no interest in separating children from their Prime carers unless they're being very severely harmed by them and it's not in their best interest to leave them in their care and in a statement the walls and authorities said they couldn't disclose confidential case information but they added North tyneside Council and North tyneside Primary Care trust have been working with the family over a prolonged period of time and will continue to do so we share the concerns over the child's health and well-being the child's interests are Paramount foreign how much responsibility in the end are you willing to take for him being morbidly obese well I take most of the responsibility I'm the one that's brought them and fed him and the best thing that could come out of the meeting for you so good advice um called food management exercise program and once I've got all that information I need then I can go ahead and deal with it I'll determined are you to vary I've never been more determined in my life about anything very determined there's times through me depression that I have given a few times to him but I know that it's just no good given in not even just that one so I'm gonna have to never ever give in keep strong and keep working towards kind of losing weight if Connor were to be taken into care it would be one of the first cases of its kind in the UK as this epidemic of severely overweight youngsters continues to rage child obesity it seems has now become a child protection issue the worst case would be connected and okay um is well cared for well looked after between the family so if you ever gets taken into care I think that will be the finish of me seriously I love that little boy so much really I give my life for him willingly and at the heart of what could be a landmark case is a boy whose immediate future is uncertain and his long-term future is in danger all because of his obesity and he's only eight foreign Foster with that report later this week Connor is scheduled to be examined by a specialist to see if a hormone imbalance could be contributing to his weight problems and if you'd like more information on childhood obesity you can visit our website at itv.com forward slash tonight coming up on Friday is the value of your house set to rise or fall following recent interest rate Rises a special tonight panel of experts reveal their predictions for the housing market over the coming year it's never a bad time to buy property I would say as provided you take a long-term View at it if you're thinking short term then you could be disappointed because I don't ever doubt that there will be fluctuations in the markets you're always going to see slight stagnation period and in periods of growth that's on Friday night at eight o'clock until then from all of us here goodbye and thank you for joining us new drama tonight on the trail of a serial killer but when detectives are confronted with a murder scene without a body the riddle is only just beginning Instinct at nine after Corey next [Music] thank you