Boy left to die just like Victoria Climbie

A TODDLER was battered to death after blunders by doctors, social workers and police allowed the abuse to go unchecked for months.

The 17-month-old suffered appalling injuries while in the care of Haringey council - the authority criticised over the death of Victoria Climbie eight years ago which was meant to have brought in safeguards to prevent future cases.

The boy's mother, her boyfriend and a lodger were convicted today of involvement in his death but were cleared of murder because it could not be established who struck the fatal blows.

Baby P, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered more than 50 injuries, many to his face which made him virtually unrecognisable. He was paralysed from a broken back, had eight fractured ribs and 15 wounds to the mouth. He was seen 60 times by health and social workers in the eight months before he was found dead in a blood-spattered cot at his north London home. The child had been on the council's child protection register for nine months.

This afternoon Sharon Shoesmith, chairwoman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, defended their care of the child.

"The child was killed by members of his own family," she said, and not by social services.

"The very sad fact is that we can't stop people who are determined to kill children.

"I am satisfied that the action that should have been taken was taken."

Ms Shoesmith said the council had looked carefully to see if anybody may have needed to be disciplined. "There was not the evidence there for anyone to lose their jobs," she said. At the Old Bailey today, the mother's 32-year-old boyfriend and lodger Jason Owen, 36, of Bromley, were convicted of causing or allowing the death of Baby P.

The mother, 27, had already pleaded guilty to the charge. They will be sentenced later. The mother and boyfriend cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court heard.

* Two days before Baby P died, and while suffering a broken back, hospital paediatrician Dr Sabah Alzayyat decided not to examine him because she thought the baby was 'miserable and cranky'.

* Social worker Maria Ward said the baby had 'appeared well' just days before he died.

* The mother was arrested twice over suspicious injuries but the day before Baby P died she was told no further action would be taken against her.

* Police had suggested three times that the baby should be taken into care, and sought legal advice, but social workers sent him back to his mother.

Three people have received formal written warnings over the death of a 17-month-old toddler, Haringey council confirmed today.

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes this afternoon announced a nationwide independent review of child protection services. She has asked Lord Laming, whose inquiry into the Climbie case made several recommendations, to prepare an independent report of progress being made across the country.

Lord Laming told Radio 4's The World At One: "It would be awful wherever it happened, but it seems particularly sad that it has happened in the same area where Victoria experienced this awful cruelty and a terrible death and involved the very same services. Of course it is dispiriting."

The home of Baby P is not far from the house where eight-year-old Victoria suffered at the hands of her great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning. Mor Dioum, director of the Victoria Climbie Foundation, said: "This is even worse than Climbie because all the signs were there but they never saw them. There were many, many, chances to save this little boy. But this social worker, her bosses at Haringey council and others missed those opportunities.

"This just goes to show what we already know - that they have learned none of the lessons of Victoria Climbie and that innocent children continue to die in Haringey because of their incompetence."

Neither police nor social workers knew the mother's boyfriend, described as a sadist 'fascinated by pain', was living in the family home for the last nine months.

After the death, police found the house littered with the boyfriend's pornography as well as Nazi memorabilia. Gillie Christou, in charge of social workers looking after children on the register in Haringey, told the court she had agreed to keep the baby with his mother. She said: "I made the decision at the time based on the material in front of me and based on the background to the case."

Detective Superintendent Caroline Bates said police errors were made. She said: "With hindsight, having the benefit of a major investigation, we know quite clearly that the mother was lying and trying to subvert agencies involved with the family."

Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provides paediatric services to children from Haringey, said Dr Alzayyat's contract had not been renewed.

Dr Jane Collins, chief executive of the hospital, said: "Dr Alzayyat should have identified the possibility that he had suffered non-accidental injuries."

She said Dr Alzayyat was appealing against the decision not to renew her contract.