UK NEWS

LESSONS OF VICTORIA'S DEATH 'STILL NOT LEARNT'

Victoria Climbie: Died eight years ago

Thursday May 29,2008

By Cyril Dixon

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The mother of murdered Victoria Climbie yesterday accused council chiefs of allowing vulnerable children to die “left, right and centre”.

Berthe Climbie claimed care authorities had failed to learn the lessons from her daughter’s torture and death eight years ago.

Victoria, eight, died in 2000 after being subjected to appalling abuse at the hands of her aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her lover Carl Manning.

Her parents had sent her to live with the couple in Hackney, East London, hoping she would have a better future than in her native Ivory Coast.

But Kouao and Manning starved the youngster, beat her with a bicycle chain, burned her with cigarettes and bound her naked to a bed until she died, weighing less than four stone.

They gave their word. But they did not live up to the responsibility

Berthe Climbie

Both were jailed for life after being convicted of murder and child cruelty. A subsequent public inquiry attacked social services as “lamentable”.

Yesterday, Mrs Climbie accused managers of failing to follow the recommendations of Lord Laming’s report into the tragedy.

She said: “An inquiry of six months – they did not respect it. If they had respected it, children would still not be dying left and right and centre. It’s not just one child, it’s several.

“After Victoria there are many children who have died in tragic circumstances.”

Mrs Climbie added: “They gave their word. But they did not live up to the responsibility.

“I was betrayed. They gave me their words and I was betrayed. What moves me today is that children are dying. It’s that that makes me sad. It’s that I find heart-breaking.”

Lord Laming’s report claimed there were several missed opportunities to save Victoria, who had 128 separate injuries. He made 100 recommendations for reform.

Mrs Climbie, who lives in Ivory Coast and spoke to the BBC Today programme, was visiting Britain for the first time.

She was due to attend a conference organised by the Victoria Climbie Foundation, a charity she helped set up to campaign for child protection.

Dr Maggie Atkinson, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, claimed the system had improved. But she added: “It’s clear it still has some development to do and still has a lot of lessons to learn.”

Councillor David Rogers, of the Local Government Association, said: “Front-line staff work tirelessly every day to protect the most vulnerable in society from harm.

“The system is not perfect but the lessons learnt from Victoria’s death in Lord Laming’s report have been widely put into place.”

THE SOCIAL SERVICES SEEM TO BE BLIND TO ALL THE THINGS THEY SHOULD BE MOST ALERT TO

29.05.08, 8:41am

If the lessons from Lord Laming's Report over the abuse, torture and murder of Victoria where she could have been saved umpteen times, had been put into place, we would not be seeing so many cases of children's abuse in the UK.

How many children have to be raped, tortured, abused and allowed to die of starvation or murdered in other ways, before the
" lamentable" social services WAKE UP.

It is no wonder paedophiles feel so comfortable in Britain where people do nothing, say nothing and see nothing and cover-up anything that might be embarassing to those in power or position.

Lord Lambing was certainly not listened to nor was his report paid an attention to, going by the cases we see.

For all the cases we hear of there are far many more we hear nothing of and it is time we woke up to the fact and became more alert as a nation to the problems of the most vulnerable and protected them, rather than those who do wrong.

• Posted by: Penny • Report Comment