By Clare Jerrom.
I failed Victoria, says doctor who identified physical abuse
A consultant paediatrician has admitted failing eight-year-old Victoria Climbie.
Mary Rossiter of North Middlesex Hospital told the inquiry into her death that Victoria was admitted with marks on her body in the summer of 1999.
But after two weeks Dr Rossiter gave the go-ahead for the child’s discharge which led to her being returned to Marie Therese Kouao and Carl Manning. This was despite the doctor’s certainty that the girl was suffering physical abuse and neglect.
Rossiter said she expected social services and the police to follow the case with an assessment of Victoria.
She said: "I failed to realise the inadequacy of the documentation. I failed to realise that what seemed very obvious to us in the hospital as a clear-cut case of child abuse had not been comprehended by my colleagues in social services."
Victoria died at the hands of her great aunt Kouao and her boyfriend Manning after months of neglect where she was forced to sleep in a bath and starved.
In the months leading up to her death she was bought to the attention of three local authorities, the police and the NHS.
Yesterday Lord Laming, who heads the inquiry said Haringey, which closed its file on the girl on the day she died, unaware she had been killed, had sent him a letter asking him to "redress the balance of the proceedings".
The letter from the council’s solicitor said there was an unevenness in the way the inquiry had treated social workers and NHS staff.
Laming said: "I made it clear at the outset that this inquiry would be conducted in an open and transparent manner."
Kouao and Manning were sentenced to life imprisonment for Victoria’s murder.
The hearing continues.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 13 October page 15
School backs head who fell for his foster child
A headmaster has left his wife and children to set up home with a troubled teenager he took in as a foster daughter.
Malcolm Hayes, who is 38, will not be prosecuted for his affair with Rhoxan Kenward. He has been allowed to return from suspension and continue in his £35,000-a-year post as head of Horsmonden County Primary School in Kent.
Rhoxan was 16 and no longer officially a foster child when a complaint was made about Hayes’ unsuitable behaviour, which meant police were unable to press charges.
Last night Rhoxan’s sister Zoey accused social services and police of failing to protect a ‘vulnerable’ child who had been ‘brainwashed’ by Hayes.
Rhoxan was brought up in Hastings with her sister by her mother Diane. But family difficulties including violence from some of Diane’s boyfriends led Rhoxan to struggle at school and she was expelled for bad behaviour.
In June last year social services decided that she would benefit from living with foster parents, as at the time, she was living between a Barnardo’s residential home in Hastings and her mother’s home.
Hayes and his wife Paula had council vetting for fostering and became Rhoxan’s foster parents in May 2000 when she was 15.
Last Christmas, Mrs Hayes told social services she was concerned about the relationship and wanted Rhoxan to return home to her mother. Hayes was suspended from school while allegations were investigated.
Rhoxan insists there was no sexual intercourse while she was under his foster care.
Detective Sergeant Brian Reed, of the Battle child protection unit, said: "He is certainly not what we classed as a paedophile or a risk to children or anything of that nature. There was no criminal offences that we could find."
Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 13 November page 23
Foster children at risk
An adoption agency has criticised the government for failing children in care.
The British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering warned that up to 10,000 privately fostered children in Britain were being failed by the law.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 13 November page 13
Shipman’s wife must face public questions
The wife of jailed doctor Harold Shipman will speak publicly for the first time about his murderous career.
Primrose Shipman married the doctor for 35 years and has been summoned to give evidence at the tribunal of inquiry investigating his crimes.
She pleaded not to have to appear in person, but Dame Janet Smith ruled she would have the same treatment as other witnesses.
She will attend the hearing on Friday at Manchester town hall.
Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 13 November page 31
Scottish news
Time runs out for delayed escape
Child abusers and rapists will no longer escape prosecution because of delays in getting their cases to court.
A ruling from Lord Reed means the accused could face a reduced sentence or receive compensation if his case is delayed, but he is unlikely to walk free from court. Victims groups were incensed after a string of cases were thrown out of court following lengthy delays.
In February last year, a suspected paedophile walked free after judges ruled that the case against him broke European human rights legislation enshrined in Scots law.
But Ken Dale-Risk, lecturer in human rights law at the Napier University in Edinburgh, said the ruling would restore the public faith in Scotland’s justice system, and should prevent people from walking away from crimes without punishment.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 13 November
