Climbie social worker fined

Senior social worker Carole Baptiste, involved in the care of

Baptiste, 39, is the first person
in Britain to be tried for
deliberately breaching an
inquiry summons and was
today found guilty at
Camberwell Green Magistrates
Court, south London.

Victoria Climbie died in North
London in February 2000 after
being sent by her parents from
Ivory Coast to live with aunt
Marie Therese Kouao and her
boyfriend Carl Manning.

She suffered months of abuse
and had 128 injuries from
beatings, cigarette burns and
scalding on her body when she
died.

Social workers repeatedly
failed to respond to evidence of
her maltreatment.

Today District Judge Hayden
Gott said he did not accept
Baptiste's defence that she was still suffering from a mental
illness during the seven months in which she ignored calls to
attend the inquiry into the murder of the eight-year-old.

Mr Gott fined Baptiste £500 for the offence.