Despite failing to stop the alleged eight-month-long torture of a little boy who was ultimately beaten to death, nine LA sheriff's deputies remain on the beat in the city.

Gabriel Fernandez was doused in pepper spray, forced to eat his own feces and vomit, had cigarettes put out on his skin, and was beaten with a bat and shot with a BB gun - among other atrocities - by his mom and her boyfriend before they murdered him in 2013, prosecutors say.

Four social workers are also being prosecuted because of his death, but the deputies - one of whom allegedly declared that a child being burned with cigarettes was 'not an emergency' - are still at work, the LA Times reported.

Tortured: Gabriel Fernandez died in May 2013. An investigation found he had been burned, beaten, shot in the face with a BB gun and forced to eat his own feces, among other horrors

Trial: Mom Pearl Fernandez (left) and boyfriend Isauro Aguirre (right) face murder charges. Four social services workers also face charges. But the police involved remain on the beat

Gabriel was continuously tortured by Pearl Fernandez, now 32, and Isauro Aguirre, now 36, over the course of eight months in 2013, according to prosecutors.

During that time nine sheriff's deputies investigated Gabriel's home and found nothing amiss - even as his school teachers fretted about his many injuries, which included black eyes, BB-gun marks on his face and burns on his head.

None of the deputies have been prosecuted, but all have been disciplined internally, according to court papers.

State laws forbid disclosing the nature of the discipline, the Sheriff's Department told the LA Times.

Fernandez and Aguirre, who is not Gabriel's father, both go to trial in March for Gabriel's death, both charged with murder and a special circumstance of torture.

And four social workers - Stefanie Rodriguez, Patricia Clement, Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt - face one count each of felony child abuse and falsifying public records. They will have a preliminary hearing on the 17th of this month.

But only now has it emerged how sheriff's deputies failed the young boy in his time of need - and how they got away with it.

Gabriel had been raised by his maternal grandmother and grandfather, but in September 2012 Pearl Fernandez decided she wanted him back.

Her parents, Robert and Sandra Fernandez, fought the claim, saying that she had struggled with drug use and had a history of physically abusing her other children.

But the state sided with Pearl Fernandez, and Gabriel was signed up to a new school, Summerwind Elementary, where teachers quickly began to notice signs of abuse.

On October 30 that year, Gabriel told his teacher, Jennifer Garcia, that he had been struck with a belt buckle, drawing blood.

Dismissed: Fernanfez's teacher and others repeatedly warned that the boy was being abused but LA sheriff's deputies didn't file the reports that would have triggered an investigation

She then called social services, who assigned his case to one of the four social workers who would ultimately face prosecution. Gabriel told her that his admission to his teacher had been a joke.

Sheriff's deputy Imelda Rizo also investigated, but found no sign of abuse, according to court documents - nor did she file a report.

No further investigation will commence unless a report is filed.

The beatings continued, prosecutors said.

Garcia, realizing that her student was still being abused but powerless to do anything, began to lie on his weekly report card, hoping that she could spare him his parents' fury, according to her testimony.

She also called social workers with each new sign of abuse, she said.

Abandoned: Gabriel was abandoned by the system, even as he attended school with peeling skin and black eyes. Deputies have been disciplined, but not fired or prosecuted

On January 29, 2013, he returned to school after a week away with bruises all over his face and a swollen eye. He told Garcia that his mom had shot him in the face with a BB gun.

Garcia reported this, but it's not clear whether sheriff's deputies investigated.

On February 27, a counselor assigned by social services reported that the eight-year-old boy had written a suicide note.

Deputy Federico Gonzalez visited the home at 2am and was told by Aguirre that the child was fine. The deputy concluded that Gabriel did not have a specific suicide plan and told the boy's mother to be vigilant.

He did not see the child, a report said.

Later in 2013 a sheriff's detective, Vanessa Reddy, investigated a claim that Gabriel had been sexually abused by an uncle.

According to a motion filed by a deputy district attorney, Reddy interviewed Gabriel, but she did not interview the uncle - nor did she file the report necessary to further the investigation.

On April 26, a security guard at the county employment office called 911 to report seeing Gabriel with burns on his face and head.

Deputy Robin Soukup 'screamed' at the guard that a burned child was 'not an emergency' according to a motion by the prosecutor.

Deputy Jonathon Livingston then interviewed Gabriel and Aguirre at their home, before logging that the boy had fallen off a bicycle and there was no evidence of abuse.

Again, no report was filed, so no further investigation took place.

'It is unclear why a child being burned all over his body is not an emergency,' Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami wrote.

'It is unclear why a police report was not filed and if the security guard was interviewed by Deputy Livingston.'

In May 2013, Gabriel was photographed for a Mother's Day project. Those photos, shown to the grand jury, show him with a bloodshot black eye; the skin peeling from his forehead; and what appeared to be bruises on his neck.

Once more, Gabriel said he fell off a bike. Once more Garcia called social services. Once more, nothing happened.

Jason Lee Lasley, a sheriff's deputy at Summerwind Elementary, was sent to investigate on May 16, after Garcia had not turned up to school for several days.

He testified that he had been given the wrong address so could not find Gabriel's home, and that when he called Pearl Fernandez she told him the boy had gone to live in Texas.

He concluded his investigation there. He did not file a report.

Gabriel died just under a week later.

House of horrors: This is where Gabriel's body was found on May 22. He was found to have a fractured skull and pelvis, a burn on his groin and BB pellets under his skin

On May 22, Pearl Fernandez called emergency services to report that her son wasn't breathing.

She told police that the bruises on his body were from playing. That the missing skin on his neck was because he was cleaned hard with a washcloth.

The autopsy told a very different story: Gabriel's skull and pelvis were fractured; he had BB pellets under his skin; his groin had a burn that went all the way through his skin and into the soft tissue.

The medical examiner told the grand jury he had never seen so many skin injuries on a child.

In the wake of the child's appalling death, reforms have been made to the system, including better training for officers and improved information flow between police departments and social workers.

Deputies are now required to file a one-page report for every child abuse call regardless of whether there is evidence of abuse taking place.

But Dan Scott, a retired sheriff's sergeant and longtime child abuse investigator, told the LA Times that Gabriel's case shows issues in how patrol officers treat child abuse cases.

'Law enforcement treats these crimes like second-class crimes,' he said.