Victoria Climbie...........killed by her guardians

Victoria Adjo Climbié (2 November 1991 – 25 April 2000) was abused and murdered by her guardians in London, England, in 2000. The public outrage at her death led to a public inquiry which produced major changes in child protection policies in the United Kingdom, including the formation of the Every Child Matters programme; the introduction of the Children Act 2004; the creation of the ContactPoint project, a planned government database that will hold information on all children in England and Wales; and the creation of the Office of the Children's Commissioner chaired by the Children's Commissioner.

Both her guardians, Marie-Thérèse Kouao (born 18 July 1956 in Bonoua, Ivory Coast) and Carl Manning (born 31 October 1972), were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at their trial on 12 January 2001.

Born in Abobo, Ivory Coast, Climbié moved to England at the age of seven with her great-aunt Kouao. It is suspected that Kouao started abusing Climbié soon after her arrival in the country, and the abuse worsened when Kouao moved in with Carl Manning. Up to her death, the police, the social services department of many local authorities, the National Health Service, the NSPCC, and local churches all had contact with her, and noted the signs of abuse. However, in what the judge in the trial following Victoria's death described as "blinding incompetence", all failed to properly investigate the abuse and little action was taken. She died in February 2000, aged eight.

Kouao: Pretended to care for Victoria

Victoria Climbie's life was short and tragic. Her murder prompted the largest review of child protection arrangements in the UK. Find out more about the story.

2 November 1991:
Victoria Adjo Climbie is born near Abidjan, the Ivory Coast.

November 1998:
Seven-year-old Victoria Adjo Climbie leaves Abobo in the Ivory Coast to lives with her aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao initially in Paris. Kouao takes the girl to London after she is pursued by French authorities over benefit payments.

April - June 1999:
On arrival in England, Victoria's name is given as Anna because of the assumed identity on the false passport used to get her into Europe.

Kouao takes a job as a hospital cleaner and the pair initially live in a hostel in north London. Some weeks later Victoria is on a bus with her aunt when they meet Carl Manning, the driver, for the first time.

July 1999:
Kouao and Victoria, who speaks no English, move into Carl Manning's home in Tottenham, north London. Within days, Victoria would be suffering abuse at the hands of Carl Manning. That abuse would lead to her torture and death.

14 July 1999:
Victoria makes her first visit to the Central Middlesex Hospital after the daughter of her childminder suspects the girl has non-accidental injuries. The doctor accepts Kouao's story that Victoria has inflicted the wounds on herself by scratching at scabies sores.

During this period, doctors alert child protection authorities as a precaution. Haringey social worker Lisa Arthurworrey and PC Karen Jones are assigned to the case. They later cancel a home visit scheduled for 4 August after hearing about the scabies.

24 July 1999:
Victoria is taken to North Middlesex Hospital's casualty department with scalding to her head and face. Doctors immediately suspect that the injuries have been deliberately inflicted.

Kouao tells Lisa Arthuworrey and PC Jones that she poured hot water over Victoria to try and stop her scratching her scalp. She says that Victoria caused other injuries with utensils.

6 August 1999:
Victoria is discharged from the hospital and is collected by Kouao after her explanation for the injuries is accepted by child protection authorities.

October 1999
Trial evidence reveals that from October 1999 until the following January, Carl Manning forces Victoria to sleep in a bin liner in the bath every night at this flat.

1 November 1999L:
Kouao tells social workers that Carl Manning has sexually assaulted Victoria. She withdraws the accusation the next day. PC Jones is asked to investigate why but takes no further action after her letter to Kouao remains unanswered.

24 February 2000
Victoria is rushed to North Middlesex Hospital suffering from a combination of malnutrition and hypothermia. Doctors later transfer her to an intensive care ward at St Mary's Hospital in west London.

25 February 2000:
Victoria is declared dead at 3.15pm at St Mary's Hospital.

Dr Nathaniel Carey, the Home Office pathologist who examines her body, finds 128 separate injuries and scars, many of them cigarette burns, and describes them as "the worst case of child abuse I've encountered".

The Climbie trial


Carl Manning and Marie Therese Kouao are charged with the murder of Victoria Climbie. During police interviews both claim that Victoria was possessed.

November 2000:
The trial opens with the prosecution making it clear that the blame lay not only with Kouao and Manning in the dock but child protection authorities who had been "blindingly incompetent".

Manning denies murder but pleads guilty to child cruelty and manslaughter. Kouao denies all charges.

12 January 2001:
Almost a year after Victoria Climbie's death, Manning and Kouao are found guilty of her murder.

Sentencing both of them to life imprisonment, Judge Richard Hawkins says: "What Anna endured was truly unimaginable. She died at both your hands, a lonely drawn out death".

The Inquiry

April 2001:
The government announces a public inquiry into the death to be headed by Lord Laming.

The inquiry is the first in Britain to use special wide-ranging powers to look at everything from the role of social services to police child protection arrangements.

Ministers make clear that they expect the inquiry to scrutinise the child protection system and not just the failings in the Climbie case.

May 2001:
Lord Laming opens the inquiry and in an unprecedented move calls both Marie Therese Kouao and Carl Manning to give evidence. He says the killers should appear at the inquiry to help it establish where the authorities failed to stop them.

The inquiry is split into two parts. You can read the key stories on the Victoria Climbie special report.

The first part or phase takes the testimony of more than 230 witnesses including neighbours, child protection officers and high-ranking social services officials.

During this phase, the inquiry heard allegations of racism, incompetence and agencies neglecting their duty of care to Victoria. The inquiry hears of 12 occasions when agencies could have intervened and possibly saved the girl's life.

The second part during 2002 uses a series of special one-day seminars to bring invited experts together to debate the nature of the child protection system and help Lord Laming draw up his conclusions.

July 2002
Lord Laming reopens the first phase of the inquiry after it emerges that a critical document by social services inspectors had not been revealed to his team.

August 2002
Carole Baptiste, one of the key social workers in the case, is found guilty of failing to attend the public inquiry and fined $500.

November 2002
Two further social workers at the heart of the Victoria Climbie child abuse scandal are sacked for gross misconduct. Lisa Arthurworrey and her manager Angella Mairs are dismissed by Haringey Council in north London following disciplinary proceedings.


http://www.victoria-climbie-inquiry.org.uk/finreport/vicstory.htm

I remember this so clearly. I also remember thinking this would never happen again....how wrong i was.

Rest in Peace little Victoria, safe now x

eddie wrote:I remember this so clearly. I also remember thinking this would never happen again....how wrong i was.

Rest in Peace little Victoria, safe now x

I'd never heard of her before but as its in the same town and connected to Baby P's case now she needs her own thread too !

Ambersuz wrote:

eddie wrote:I remember this so clearly. I also remember thinking this would never happen again....how wrong i was.

Rest in Peace little Victoria, safe now x

I'd never heard of her before but as its in the same town and connected to Baby P's case now she needs her own thread too !

This was all over the news then Amber. Everyone was saying how terrible it was, how could this have happened?? When the Baby P case broke it was my mum who said "Wasn't that where Victoria Climbie died?"

The horrible thing about this Victoria Climbie case is that they brought her over from her native country just to abuse her!!! It is terrible.

eddie wrote:

Ambersuz wrote:

eddie wrote:I remember this so clearly. I also remember thinking this would never happen again....how wrong i was.

Rest in Peace little Victoria, safe now x

I'd never heard of her before but as its in the same town and connected to Baby P's case now she needs her own thread too !

This was all over the news then Amber. Everyone was saying how terrible it was, how could this have happened?? When the Baby P case broke it was my mum who said "Wasn't that where Victoria Climbie died?"

The horrible thing about this Victoria Climbie case is that they brought her over from her native country just to abuse her!!! It is terrible.

It wasnt news here at all!

But i've read about it now and the enquiry and its too similar to Peters case...she had burns all over her face in one photo

Ambersuz wrote:

eddie wrote:

Ambersuz wrote:

eddie wrote:I remember this so clearly. I also remember thinking this would never happen again....how wrong i was.

Rest in Peace little Victoria, safe now x

I'd never heard of her before but as its in the same town and connected to Baby P's case now she needs her own thread too !

This was all over the news then Amber. Everyone was saying how terrible it was, how could this have happened?? When the Baby P case broke it was my mum who said "Wasn't that where Victoria Climbie died?"

The horrible thing about this Victoria Climbie case is that they brought her over from her native country just to abuse her!!! It is terrible.

It wasnt news here at all!

But i've read about it now and the enquiry and its too similar to Peters case...she had burns all over her face in one photo

The one thing that always stuck in my mind was how this poor little girl was kept in a bath wrapped in black bin bags, lying in her own faeces and urine......
If there is a God, then those tormentors will rot for eternity.

eddie wrote:

Ambersuz wrote:

eddie wrote:

Ambersuz wrote:

eddie wrote:I remember this so clearly. I also remember thinking this would never happen again....how wrong i was.

Rest in Peace little Victoria, safe now x

I'd never heard of her before but as its in the same town and connected to Baby P's case now she needs her own thread too !

This was all over the news then Amber. Everyone was saying how terrible it was, how could this have happened?? When the Baby P case broke it was my mum who said "Wasn't that where Victoria Climbie died?"

The horrible thing about this Victoria Climbie case is that they brought her over from her native country just to abuse her!!! It is terrible.

It wasnt news here at all!

But i've read about it now and the enquiry and its too similar to Peters case...she had burns all over her face in one photo

The one thing that always stuck in my mind was how this poor little girl was kept in a bath wrapped in black bin bags, lying in her own faeces and urine......
If there is a God, then those tormentors will rot for eternity.

I remember this case like it was yesterday. It really go to me too.