| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
16/01/02
- Victoria Climbie social worker 'showed signs of mental
illness'
A senior social worker developed a serious psychotic
mental illness while in charge of the Victoria Climbie
child abuse case, a public inquiry has heard. During
1999 Carole Baptiste, 39, a social services team manager
at Haringey Council, north London, was showing symptoms
of mental illness but believed she was suffering form
stress.
She denied hearing voices during this period but was
worried enough to discuss her problems with her line
manager the inquiry into the eight-year-old's death
was told.
Together they dismissed the problem as "not something
that was taken particularly seriously" even though
it could have affected her professional performance,
she told the inquiry.
A report by a consultant psychiatrist prepared for the
inquiry which is investigating circumstances surrounding
Victoria's death, concludes that she was clinically
depressed and suffering from a severe psychotic illness,
which she was unaware of, her counsel Peter Herbert
said.
Reading from the report he added: "It is likely
that Ms Baptiste was developing a serious psychotic
mental illness during 1999. It is likely that this mental
illness would have impaired her capacity to function
as a social work team leader.
"In particular I would expect that her capacity
to work would have been lower than before she developed
the mental illness and that her capacity to take decisions
would have been impaired."
As team manager Ms Baptiste was in charge of supervising
Lisa Arthurworrey, the inexperienced social worker who
handled Victoria's case. Ms Baptiste allocated Victoria's
case to Miss Arthurworrey despite knowing she was dealing
with up to 19 other cases.
Victoria died in February 2000 aged eight with 128 separate
injuries on her body after being tortured and abused
for months by her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao and
Kouao's lover, Carl Manning. They are both now serving
life for murder. |
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