Trial hears how child died with injuries all over her body

A couple have appeared in court accused of manslaughter and neglect
after their two-year-old daughter died with 60 injuries all over
her body.

Dennis Henry and Leanne Labonte from east London both deny
subjecting their daughter Ainlee Walker to a catalogue of abuse and
torture, a court heard.

An Old Bailey jury was told the girl was burned with cigarettes,
pinched and forced to stand in scalding water causing her third
degree burns.

One doctor said the case was “manifestly severe physical abuse
accompanied by the grossest of gross neglect”.

Newham council’s social services was involved in the case, but
the couple hurled abuse and made threats when social workers tried
to make home visits at the couple’s filthy flat in Plaistow.

Ann Curnow, for the prosecution, said: “Throughout this, the
parents’ attitude can only be described as unco-operative, rude and
even aggressive.”

Paramedics, who were called to the flat on 7 January this year,
found Ainlee lying on a table with no pulse. They tried to
resuscitate her, but failed.

Labonte, who has two sons from a previous relationship, told the
paramedics, it was claimed, that Ainlee had not eaten for a
day-and-a-half.

She had been seen by doctors, but the last consultation was four
month’s before her death.

A post mortem revealed that she weighed less then when she had
last been seen by a doctor, and the cause of death was chronic
abuse and neglect.

A former neighbour of Henry and Labonte said she made repeated
phone calls to social services raising concerns about the couple’s
children.

Gwendolyn Veale said she heard screaming, children crying and
heavy objects being thrown around the flat.

The trial continues.