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Lisa Arthurworrey, the social worker at the centre of the Victoria Climbié case, told a tribunal hearing yesterday that she had not been given the tools to protect the eight-year-old.

Arthurworrey, who was Victoria's allocated worker at Haringey Council, is appealing against the General Social Care Council's decision not to register her on competency grounds.

She told the Care Standards Tribunal hearing: “If my employer had given me sufficient tools I firmly believe Victoria would be here today”.

Arthurworrey added that she had no idea she was working without reference to the proper child protection procedures.

“I lacked sufficient child protection experience. I was not able to challenge loopholes - and there were lots of them.”

She went on to say that she thought about the case every day, adding: “I have to live with a dead child inside my head."

Victoria was murdered in 2000 by her great-aunt Marie Kouao and Kouao's boyfriend, Carl Manning, who were convicted the following year. Arthurworrey was suspended in October 2000 and then sacked from Haringey in November 2002, after giving evidence to Lord Laming's public inquiry, which recommended a complete overhaul of child protection services in January 2003.

Laming said Victoria had endured a "catalogue of administrative, managerial and professional failure by the services charged with her safety".

Arthurworrey's tribunal continues.

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