WARNING: CONTAINS CONTENT THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND UPSETTING
A new Netflix true crime docuseries, telling the harrowing story of an eight-year-old boy's murder and the child protection systems that let him down, has left viewers shaken with some claiming to have been in tears all the way through.
The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez - a six-part series which landed on the streaming service on 26 February - focuses on the life of Gabriel Fernandez, a little boy who was found unconscious when paramedics arrived at his home in Palmdale, California, on 22 May 2013 after a call from his mother reporting an incident.
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When he was taken to hospital, doctors discovered the boy's skull had been fractured in two places, he had three ribs broken, his teeth were knocked out with a bat, and his lungs and groin were severely injured by BB gun pellets.
Gabriel was pronounced brain dead that day and was taken off life support two days later. It was later revealed that his death was a result of a long and sustained campaign of abuse inflicted on him by his mother Pearl Sinthia Fernandez and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre.
The Netflix documentary details the numerous investigations done by social workers, where they reported the little boy's injuries. However, he was allowed to remain at home where the abuse continued.
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This is causing viewers all over the world to take to social media and express their anger and frustration with how Gabriel's case was dealt with.
One said: "F*** these social workers. F*** that teacher. F*** all these people he told his story to & who blatantly f***ing ignored his outcries for help. HE SHOULD BE HERE. He should've been helped! Rest peacefully sweet boy. I'm so sorry everyone failed you."
Another added: "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez was heartbreaking. I cannot believe anyone on this planet would do what they did to that poor poor boy.
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"It was a struggle to watch but I just had to see the parents who did all the abusing were sentenced accordingly. They way he looked, broke my heart."
A third viewer wrote: "The Gabriel Fernandez Trials on Netflix makes me f***ing sick."
The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez is now streaming on Netflix.
Topics:Β TV and Film, Netflix
