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26/09/01 - Lonely death for
Victoria as warning signs unheeded
Hannah Cowdy
Reuters
Victoria Climbie's "miserable and lonely
death'' could have been avoided if police, social and
health workers had heeded repeated warning signs, a public
inquiry heard at its opening on Wednesday.
Eight-year-old Victoria died in February 2000 after months
of neglect and hypothermia in what pathologist Nathaniel
Carey called the worst case of child abuse he has ever
seen.
In her final months, Victoria -- called Anna by her
killers -- was abandoned for hours on end, naked and
tied up in a rubbish bag, lying in her own excrement
in a bath, in an unheated, unlit room, where she was
fed cold food.
Her adoptive great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and Kouao's
boyfriend Carl Manning, who is expected to testify during
the inquiry, have been convicted of her murder.
By the time she died, Victoria had been admitted to
two London hospitals, where doctors identified her complaint
as indicative of abuse, and referred her to higher medical
authorities, said the inquiry's counsel, Neil Garnham.
Her case had also been raised with social security,
but Garnham said it remained unclear whether proper
assessments of her needs were ever carried out.
"Victoria Climbie's death was not simply an isolated
act of madness by two sick individuals. Her ill treatment
was prolonged. It was not hidden away out of sight of
the authorities,'' he added.
"As we shall discover, the signs were there. In fact,
it seems as if the signs were on display time and time
again. But they went unheeded, '' he added.
"She would eat it like a dog, pushing her face into
the plate. Except, of course, that a dog is not usually
tied up in a plastic bag full of its own excrement.
To say that Kouao and Manning treated Victoria like
a dog would be wholly unfair; she was treated far worse
than any dog,'' Garnham added.
Victoria was sent to live with Kouao in Britain by
her parents in the Ivory Coast, who felt honoured their
happy and healthy daughter would be educated in Europe.
They never saw their daughter alive again.
Francis and Berthe Climbie, who are expected to testify
on Friday, left the court with Victoria's mother Berthe
in tears after photographs, taken over six months before
her death, showed her with burns to her head, and a
swollen eye.
They declined to comment on Tuesday, but on learning
of the circumstances of their daughter's death they
said such a thing could not happen in their West African
nation.
Garnham urged the inquiry to keep an open mind on the
subject of race and its possible significance in the
case.
"We have seen no evidence thus far of overt racism.
But assumption based on race can be just as corrosive
in its effect as blatant racism, '' he added.
The first phase of the inquiry which deals with why Victoria
was allowed to die is expected to end in mid-December.
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