Man bailed after arrest for seven-year-old's shooting

A 23-year-old man questioned by police over the gangland killings of a seven-year-old girl and her father has been freed on police bail.

The man has been bailed until a date in October pending further inquiries, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

He remains in custody at a north London police station in connection with suspected immigration offences, the spokesman said.

It emerged yesterday that Toni-Ann Byfield had been known to social services in Birmingham for 10 months.

But despite being a ward of court and under social services care the girl was still able to spend the weekend at the home of her father, a convicted crack dealer with links to yardie gangs.

It was there in Harrow Road, Brent, north-west London, that she was killed in the early hours of Sunday by a gunman who burst in and shot her father, 41-year-old Bertram Byfield, several times.

Police believe the gunman then deliberately shot Toni-Ann in the back as she screamed and ran away so that she could never give evidence against him.

Toni-Ann's death comes less than a year after the inquiry into the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie recommended better co-operation and vigilance amongst agencies dealing with children.