Illegal childminder left baby dead

A baby left in the care of an illegal childminder died after choking on his own vomit.

Four-month-old Sean Opoku lay dead for up to five hours before Jennifer Allen - who has a history of mental illness and was known to social workers - called an ambulance.

Mrs Allen, in charge of Sean for the first time, left him dead in his pushchair while she went out to collect his sister from school.

At an inquest into Sean's death on 2 July last year, Det Sgt Neil Casey criticised Waltham Forest council for failing to stop Mrs Allen from being a childminder, despite warnings going back as far as the Eighties over her ability to care for children.

He said he requested files on Ms Allen, of Grosvenor Park Road, Walthamstow, but was told he was not entitled to them. They were eventually provided in March.

Det Sgt Casey told the inquest at Walthamstow Coroners Court that after the child's death he heard from a pyschiatric nurse about Mrs Allen's "mental health problems". He said: "The nurse said she had informed social services on two occasions about Mrs Allen's unregistered childminding. But social services denied all knowledge of receiving such information, so no action was taken."

On the day he died, Sean was left by his mother, Linda, at Mrs Allen's home at 10.45am. It was Mrs Opoku's first day back at work.

Mrs Allen had cared for her seven-year-old daughter Ashley since she was a baby and Mrs Opoku had no knowledge of the childminder's mental health problems.

The inquest heard how when Sean started crying at 11am Mrs Allen gave him milk and laid him on his back. He fell asleep at 12.30pm and was put back into his pushchair.

Mrs Allen, who was also looking after a four-year-old child at the time, cooked lunch and admitted that she "didn't pay much attention" to Sean. At 2pm Sean's mother called and was told he was sleeping and was fine. At 2.45pm Mrs Allen went to wake Sean as she had to collect children from school.

She told the court: "He wasn't moving. I started panicking. I knew he was dead. I was frightened and didn't know what to do."

But instead of phoning an ambulance she called her estranged husband. When he failed to arrive by 3pm she left to collect the children from school. She arrived home 10 minutes later and told Sean's sister he was dead. Eventually her estranged husband Michael Allen arrived. He called an ambulance at 3.27pm - 42 minutes after the baby had been discovered dead. Coroner Dr Elizabeth Stearns recorded an open verdict, saying Sean had inhaled his own vomit and died, but she did not know why.

She demanded to know what the council had done to publicise the fact that parents should not leave their children with unregistered minders-The inquest also heard from former social worker Parveen Hussain who said the department became aware of Mrs Allen in the Eighties when officers dealt with her in relation to her own children.

"There was suspicion in that she was illegally childminding," she said. "She was reminded in 1988 she shouldn't be minding children."

She said that social services "recorded that she continued despite being told to stop".