SIXTEEN long months ago a 17-month-old boy – now known universally as Baby P – died after suffering a horrific catalogue of torture and abuse.

Yesterday, according to the Government, three people lost their jobs at the much-maligned Haringey council as a result. Well, sort of.

What really happened was that two councillors stood down from their cabinet positions and a senior officer was sacked.

Such was the public outcry over this case that something had to happen.

Hundreds of people have visited Baby P’s grave while more than a million people signed a national newspaper petition calling for those who failed the toddler to lose their jobs.

Yesterday some of them did. But the majority of people would question why action has taken so long.

Baby P’s entire, tragic life was only slightly longer than the time it has taken for people like Sharon Shoesmith, Haringey’s head of children’s services, to get the sack.

This is the person, let us not forget, who claimed there was “not the evidence there for anyone to lose their jobs” after the child’s mother, boyfriend and lodger were convicted of causing or allowing his death.

It was a claim made all the more chillingly absurd when we consider that Baby P had been on the child protection register for eight months before his death and had been visited by the authorities more than 60 times.

Those ousted yesterday should have gone months ago. We would question why more of those who failed this poor child have not followed them. Not doing their jobs meant they failed him in life. Clinging on to their posts for so long means they have also failed him in death.