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Lisa Arthurworrey, the social worker at the centre of the Victoria Climbié case, today admitted sending inappropriate e-mails to the General Social Care Council as a result of the huge pressure she was under following the death of the child.

She told a Care Standards Tribunal hearing that the e-mails, the content of which were not disclosed, were sent at a time when she was experiencing a lot of stress caused by ongoing harassment at work.

Arthurworrey has been signed off sick from her job as a housing and debt adviser since December last year and told the tribunal a colleague had made a direct death threat. “When you feel crushed by the system, you hit out any way you can,” she said.

But counsel for the GSCC Eleanor Grey argued that the e-mail showed that Arthurworrey was not somebody who could maintain proper means of professionalism when under pressure.

Harassment

Arthurworrey, who is appealing against the GSCC's refusal to register her, has also been criticised for failing to inform the GSCC of two convictions, one of which was for harassment in December 2006.

She denied attempting to conceal the convictions, adding that her failure to inform the GSCC was an oversight caused by being “overwhelmed” by other problems, including harassment from neighbours.

Arthurworrey said other residents in the housing block where she lives had begun harassing her a month after Victoria Climbié died in February 2000. She said she had been racially abused and called a child murderer.

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