Couple found guilty in child cruelty case

Leanne Labonte and Dennis Henry

The parents of a two-year-old girl, who died with 60 injuries on
her body, have been convicted of her manslaughter by an Old Bailey
jury.

Leanne Labonte was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and
child cruelty and Dennis Henry was given 12 years for the same
charges, after the jury took less than four hours to find them
guilty of killing Ainlee Walker.

The couple from Plaistow in east London both denied the
charges, saying they couldn’t explain how cigarette burns and third
degree scalding marks were found on the girl’s body.

Paramedics called to the couple’s flat in January found Ainlee
lying on a table with no pulse. They tried to reuscitate but were
unable to do so.

Labonte admitted Ainlee had not been fed for a day-and-a-half
before she died.

The judge Mr Justice Leveson called for a full inquiry into
Ainlee’s death.

He said that when the dreadful burns and scalds were inflicted
on Ainlee: “I have no doubt that she would have screamed and
screamed until she could scream no more.

“In the end she lost the will to live,” he said.

He told Labonte and Henry they were “in it together to a
sufficient extent that it would be wrong to distinguish between
you”.

Click
here to read a statement from Kathryn Hudson, director of
social services for Newham council.

Home page picture supplied by PA Photos.