Neglect girl parents to give evidence

The parents of young girl who died of appalling neglect were preparing to give evidence to a public hearing which opens today.

Berthe and Francis Climbie are to give oral evidence to the inquiry into one of Britain’s worst cases of child abuse.

Their daughter Victoria, eight, died of neglect while under the care of her aunt and her partner, despite the involvement of social services, police and the NHS.

The youngster, who had been sent to live with Kouao 12 months before, had 128 separate injuries on her body and died from multiple organ failure, malnutrition and neglect.

She had been repeatedly beaten and forced to sleep, bound hand and foot, in a bin liner in an unheated bathroom.

The head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Gurbux Singh, has also been summoned to give evidence to the hearing which was beginning to taking oral evidence from witnesses in south London today.

He was chief executive of Haringey council in London while Victoria was being abused and is due to appear during the last week of November.

Other high-ranking figures called to the inquiry include police officers and senior social services staff.

Victoria’s parents are flying to London this week from the Ivory Coast and will be the first witnesses to give evidence to the public hearing.

The move could bring them face-to-face with their daughter’s killers Marie Therese Kouao, Victoria’s aunt, and Carl Manning, Kouao’s boyfriend, if they are called to give evidence.

The pair were jailed for life in January for the murder of the girl in Tottenham, north London, in February 2000.

The inquiry opened in May but this is the first phase of the public hearing and the first time the inquiry will hear witness evidence.

A spokeswoman for the inquiry said 232 witnesses have been called to give evidence with 144 taking to the stand.

She said: ‘‘The fact we will be taking evidence from so many people including those in positions of seniority, shows the investigation will leave no stone unturned.’’

When the first stage of the public inquiry into Victoria’s death opened in May, chairman Lord Laming pledged that ‘‘something good’’ would come out of her appalling murder.

Despite concerns being raised about Victoria, social services closed their investigation just weeks before her death.

The inquiry is the first of its kind to involve three separate agencies - social services, the NHS and police.

It intends to call the victim by the name given to her by her parents, rather than Anna, which was used by Kouao and Manning.

The two killers may also give evidence at the inquiry, when the first phase of witness evidence begins on September 26.