Toni's mother: I blame myself

The mother of a seven-yearold girl murdered alongside her father blamed herself and social services today for her daughter's death.

Toni-Ann Byfield was shot in the back as she fled screaming after her father, Bertram, a convicted-crack dealer, was killed in his Kensal Green bedsit on Sunday. Police say she was shot to stop her identifying her father's killer.

Speaking from Jamaica, her mother, Christine Richards, said her daughter was supposed to be in the care of Birmingham social services and should not have been with her father.

She last saw Toni-Ann in 1999, when she sent her to England to "help me out and get her exposed to a different culture". They were often in contact by phone.

"I blame myself for her death," she said. "I should have gone to England, found some way to get my baby from him. I blame the social services as well. Didn't they suspect that something was not right? It's not even one month since she left their care. Why didn't they do their job?"

Miss Richards, who also has two sons and lives in the Kingston suburb of St Andrews South, continued: "Someone murdered him and killed my daughter, my innocent daughter, because she knows them. But I can't cry. I have to be s t rong. Her father planned to bring her out to Jamaica in December.

"The last time I spoke to her was last week and she said, 'Mommy, I want to see you, I want to see you and my brothers'.

"The immigration services and the police have promised to get me a visa but what about my sons? Who will I leave them with? Yardies killed my daughter and her father, suppose they want to kill my sons as well?"

Detectives are due to fly to Jamaica to interview Miss Richards. Police sources told the Daily Mail that Toni-Ann's family background was "highly complex" and they were still uncertain about her movements when she came to Britain.

It is thought she was placed in care after a child-abuse allegation.

Toni-Ann was living with foster parents in Birmingham until a few weeks ago, when she moved to London to be looked after by her aunt, Cymon Campbell.

Ms Campbell was too distraught to talk about her niece's death. But a family friend said Ms Campbell felt forced to let the youngster stay at the bedsit because of pressure from both Byfield and Toni-Ann. Byfield, 41, was released in 2001 after a nine-year sentence for drug-dealing.

In January last year, he survived an attempted killing near his house. Robert Grant, 23, was later acquitted of his attempted murder.

A 23-year-old man arrested in connection with the two deaths has been released on bail but remains in custody at a London police station in connection with alleged immigration offences.