New Hampshire social workers ignored a litany of warning signs that a 5-year-old girl was being physically abused by her father prior to the child’s death, the slain girl’s mother alleged in a negligence lawsuit filed Friday against the state.

Crystal Sorey says the state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families failed to act on numerous reports from multiple people about Harmony Montgomery’s welfare after father Adam Montgomery was awarded custody of the girl in February 2019.

Adam Montgomery was sentenced in May to a minimum of 56 years in prison after he was convicted of murdering his daughter and moving her corpse around for months before disposing of it. Police believe Harmony was killed by him nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her body was never found.

  • Promethiel@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I think I can relate, somewhat. It’s not easy, constantly being rational in the face of evil depravity. A just mind seeking a clean pattern of cause and effect can’t be blamed when it starts asking “where is the sword of the innocent”, and I personally get how that morphs to “Ok, will somebody give me the sword?”.

    I’m there myself today, on other news. Beware the thoughts, however. There’s a difference between wanting to wield a sword to protect and one to punish; one is swift and necessary, the other opens the window to festering and becoming the abyss.

    I wouldn’t weep at a swift and ignominious end now, and I certainly would personally swing down that figurative blade and go to sleep soundly but never with the idea the monster could be made to comprehend if I taint myself to the same level of depravity, best remain a monster-lite. Because even that course of action I’d take is not without its own brand of reprehensible in the just world I’d rather live in.

    • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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      2 months ago

      Very poetic, and yes. You’re right.

      Edit: (I’m being serious btw, you write very well; I just don’t know what else to say aside from what I’ve said to the other commenters).