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.
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”.
A police diagram of injuries on Victoria’s body
Regular contact
Reporting to a workshop into the inquiry in London into Victoria’s death Mr Davies was due to say: “Crisis management is the day-to-day reality of staff working in social services and they are being stretched beyond the limit.”There is no doubt in my mind that these factors played a key part in the case of Victoria Climbie and I fear that unless urgent action is taken, it is only a matter of time before another child is murdered.” Victoria was killed despite regular contact with four local authorities, two police child protection teams, two hospitals and social workers. A Unison survey on typical working conditions in social services teams backs Mr Owen’s assertions.
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Six out of 10 social workers said that even if all of the many vacant posts in the profession were filled there would still not be enough staff. An overwhelming majority of 96% said case loads were too heavy, while 88% said new staff were “thrown in at the deep end”. More than nine out of ten reported acute levels of stress and staff “burn-out”, while a similar number said they had to take work home. The survey was sent to the 120 Unison local authority branches with members in social services children and families teams, and 53 replies were received.
Kouao systematically abused Victoria
It is only a matter of time before there is a repeat of the Victoria Climbie murder, public service union Unison has warned. It said a chronic shortage of skilled staff and funding has left social workers “stretched beyond the limit”. The union’s national officer for social workers, Owen Davies, is expected to call on the government and local authorities to “face up to their responsibilities”. Eight-year-old Victoria died in February 2000 with 128 injuries on her body – inflicted by her great-aunt Marie Therese Kouao and Kouao’s boyfriend, Carl Manning.
