Court hears social worker did not examine girl because she was asleep

A social worker for Newham council, who visited a couple accused
of manslaughter and child cruelty after their baby daughter died
with injuries all over her body, did not examine the girl because
she was asleep.

In a statement read to a court at the Old Bailey, Daniella
Yahuda said she visited the parents of Ainlee Walker at their flat
in Plaistow, east London, six months before the two-year-old’s
death in January this year.

Leanne Labonte and Dennis Henry both deny manslaughter and child
cruelty. They were charged after paramedics called to the flat
failed to revive Ainlee, who had stopped breathing. She had 60
bruises all over body, cigarette burns and third degree burns from
scalding water.

“I noted I could not carry out an adequate assessment of Ainlee
as she was asleep,” Yahuda said.

She referred Ainlee’s case to Newham’s children in need team,
saying there were grounds for further assessment, and that was the
last contact she had with the family.

Yahuda, who qualified as a social worker in 1999, had visited
the flat because Labonte and Henry had not taken Ainlee to
appointments with a paediatrician.

The trial continues.