2001: Climbie carers guilty of murder
The carers of an eight-year-old girl who died after being tortured and fed scraps of food like a dog have been found guilty of her murder.
The Home Office pathologist who examined her body declared it was the worst case of child abuse he had ever encountered.
The girl's aunt, Marie Therese Kouao, and her boyfriend Carl Manning were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Judge Richard Hawkins described their treatment of Anna Climbie as "truly unimaginable".
Manning denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child cruelty. Kouao claimed that the girl's death was due to witchcraft and denied all charges.
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Anna's parents entrusted their daughter to her aunt in 1998. They sent her away from her home in the Ivory Coast in the hope she would have a better life in Europe.
The Judge told the court that Anna had left for France a "lovely child, full of hope and love", but had become an "inconvenience" to Kouao and her boyfriend.
The murder investigation and trial revealed a series of failings by the police, two hospitals and three local authorities to protect Anna.
The Director of Social Services for Haringey Council, Anne Bristow acknowledged that the first warnings of abuse were evident eight months before Anna's death.
"We should have acted to protect this child and accept responsibility for our failure," she said.
The Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, has ordered a statutory inquiry. The case has also been referred to the Police Complaints Authority.
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