Paula Hudgell knows better than most what can happen when a vulnerable child is failed by the very systems meant to protect them.

Her adopted son Tony survived horrific abuse as a tiny baby, endured dozens of operations and lost both of his legs. Against extraordinary odds, he grew into an inspirational young campaigner whose story helped change the law and strengthen protections for children across Britain.

Now, Paula is lending her voice to another heartbreaking fight — the campaign demanding a public national inquiry into the safeguarding failures surrounding the death of 13-month-old Preston Davey.

Her message is painfully clear: Britain cannot keep promising that “lessons will be learned” only for another child to suffer.

“We cannot keep hearing the same empty promise that ‘lessons will be learned’ after every child’s death, while the same failures happen again and again,” Paula said.

For her, Preston’s story is not simply another tragic case.

It is a devastating reminder of how much more still needs to change.

Tony survived when doctors feared he would not

Tony Hudgell’s story could so easily have ended in tragedy.

He was just 41 days old when he suffered catastrophic abuse at the hands of his birth parents, according to the case against them. He was left with multiple fractures across his tiny body and reportedly went for days without the urgent medical treatment he desperately needed.

By the time he reached hospital, his condition was so serious that doctors feared he might not survive.

But Tony fought.

He spent around three months in hospital and underwent 23 operations. The injuries he suffered were so severe that both of his legs eventually had to be amputated.

Then came Paula and Mark Hudgell.

Tony initially entered their lives as a foster baby, but he quickly became part of their family. They later adopted him, beginning a journey that would transform not only Tony’s life, but eventually the law itself.

Paula and Mark spent years fighting for justice and campaigning for stronger consequences for those who seriously harm children.

Their efforts helped bring about Tony’s Law, strengthening sentencing powers for serious child cruelty offences.

But the family did not stop there.

After years of campaigning, a Child Cruelty Offender Register was also agreed, creating another safeguard aimed at making known offenders more visible to authorities when future risks to children arise.

For Paula, every change has come from the same painful belief: what happened to Tony must never be allowed to happen to another child.

Yet Preston Davey’s case has raised the devastating question of whether enough has truly changed.

“Tony could so easily have been another tragic child death”

Paula has never forgotten how close she came to losing her son.

“Tony could so easily have been another tragic child death in a system full of failings,” she said, explaining why cases involving vulnerable children affect her so deeply.

Tony survived.

Little Preston did not.

Preston Davey was only 13 months old when he was murdered by a man who was in the process of adopting him — someone the little boy had come to know as “dad.”

The details revealed during the criminal case were deeply disturbing.

In less than four months, Preston suffered extensive abuse and was found to have dozens of non-accidental injuries. He had been taken to hospital multiple times and was known to social services.

There were warning signs.

There were opportunities for intervention.

Yet somehow, the little boy remained in danger.

Jamie Varley, a former teacher, was later handed a whole-life sentence after being convicted of offences including Preston’s murder, child cruelty and sexual offences.

His former partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, received a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of offences including allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual assault.

But criminal convictions cannot answer every question left behind.

For Preston’s family and campaigners, one question remains impossible to ignore:

How could a baby in the care of the state suffer so terribly while systems designed to safeguard him were already around him?

A growing demand for answers

Paula and Tony Hudgell have now joined the growing campaign calling for a public national inquiry into the safeguarding failures surrounding Preston’s death.

Tens of thousands of people have backed the call, alongside campaigners and public figures including Ellie Goulding, Carrie Johnson, Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp and domestic abuse campaigner Hetti Barkworth-Nanton.

The campaign is seeking more than expressions of sympathy.

It wants answers.

Why were repeated warning signs not enough to trigger decisive intervention?

How was information shared between hospitals, social services, adoption agencies and local authorities?

Were the procedures used to assess and monitor prospective adopters strong enough?

And when a vulnerable child is placed outside the area responsible for their care, who is ultimately accountable for ensuring that child is safe?

These questions matter far beyond one individual case.

Because, as Paula knows from Tony’s experience, safeguarding failures can leave consequences that last a lifetime.

“Children cannot keep paying with their lives”

Paula’s support for the inquiry comes from more than a decade of fighting for Tony.

“For 11 years we fought for Tony — fought for him to be heard, fought for him to be protected, fought for the help and support he so desperately needed,” she said.

From the moment Tony entered the Hudgell family’s life, Paula says they saw how vulnerable children could fall through gaps in systems that were supposed to protect them.

That experience drove their campaign for Tony’s Law.

It drove their fight for the Child Cruelty Offender Register.

And now it has brought them to Preston.

“Children cannot keep paying with their lives for professional failings, missed opportunities and a lack of accountability,” Paula warned.

Those words carry particular weight because Tony’s own life shows what was nearly lost.

The little boy doctors once feared might not survive went on to raise millions of pounds for charity, much of it supporting hospitals and vulnerable children.

Through his fundraising and the Tony Hudgell Foundation, he has turned an unimaginably painful beginning into a force for good.

He also became the youngest-ever recipient of a British Empire Medal at the age of nine, recognised for his services to children.

Tony became a symbol of resilience.

But Paula has always insisted that his survival should never distract from the reality of what happened to him.

No child should have to become “inspirational” because they survived something that should have been prevented.

Preston’s death must mean something changes

The campaign for a national inquiry is ultimately about ensuring Preston’s story does not become another tragedy followed by promises, reviews and then silence.

Paula believes this case must mark a turning point.

“Preston’s death must be a line in the sand,” she said.

“It must force this country to face the reality that safeguarding is still not strong enough, accountability is still not strong enough, and protection for our most vulnerable children is still not strong enough.”

Behind every safeguarding report, every official review and every statistic is a child.

Tony was one of those children.

Preston was another.

One survived and grew up to help change the law.

The other never got that chance.

That is perhaps what makes Paula Hudgell’s intervention so powerful.

She knows what Tony’s future could have looked like if he had not survived those first terrible weeks of his life. She also knows how hard families must sometimes fight to make institutions listen and to turn tragedy into meaningful change.

For Preston, it is now too late to undo what happened.

But those campaigning in his name believe it is not too late to ask why warning signs failed to save him — and whether changes could protect another child in the future.

Paula’s final message leaves little room for complacency:

“We owe it to Preston, to Tony, and to every child who has been failed, to make sure this stops now.”

Tony Hudgell survived against extraordinary odds and helped inspire laws designed to protect others.

Preston Davey deserved the same chance to grow up.

Now, those fighting in his name want to ensure his short life is remembered not only for the tragedy of how it ended — but for the changes his story may yet help bring about.