Ghost of Victoria Climbie haunts new child death probe » Local Government » 24dash.com

Victoria Climbie's horrific death led to a huge public inquiry and placed the handling of child abuse cases firmly under the microscope.

The eight-year-old lived in Haringey, the same London borough as the 17-month-old boy whose death was revealed yesterday.

Victoria was sent to Europe by her parents, who hoped she would gain a better education than in her native Ivory Coast home.

But the eight-year-old was starved, beaten with coat hangers and bicycle chains, bound naked and kept prisoner in a freezing bathroom in a squalid London inner city flat.

When she died in February 2000 she weighed just 24 kilos (3st 10lbs).

An inquiry into her death, chaired by Lord Laming, found there were several missed chances to save Victoria, who was found with 128 separate injuries when she died.

A lack of communication between the three local authorities, two hospitals, police and child protection officers allowed Marie-Therese Kouao and her lover Carl Manning to torture her to death.

Kouao, Victoria's great aunt, and Manning were convicted of murder and child cruelty in January 2001 and jailed for life for the crime.

The warning signs were hidden but many professionals, ranging from doctors, nurses, social workers and police, were waiting for each other to act.

It resulted in no-one taking action and at least 12 chances to save Victoria's life being missed.

Most admitted they were overwhelmed by their workloads, downtrodden by low pay and morale and did not communicate with one another.

The inquiry report made more than 100 recommendations to the Government to reform a system already layered with guidelines refined over decades by similar tragedies.

Among them was a call for the appointment of a Children's Commissioner for England and the establishment of a national database to track every child's health, welfare and educational progress.

Last year Victoria's parents reacted angrily after a poll found that some NHS Trusts had failed to implement all of the report's recommendations.

Lord Laming himself has not shied away from criticising measures, or the lack of them, taken since the inquiry.

Following last year's poll he said it was "unacceptable" to find the system working well in some areas and not in others.

Copyright Press Association 2007.

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