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 By Angus Stickler
Lisa Arthurworrey was the Haringey social worker who was sacked for failing to prevent theÌýmurder ofÌýeight-year-old Victoria Climbie. She is now appealing against this decision.
Lisa Arthurworrey has told Today reporter, Angus Stickler, that she will appeal against her dismissal for gross misconduct and the subsequent ban from working with children. She admits to her failings and also that she made some grave errors, but says her managers at Haringey Social Services and misleading medical reports let her down.
Victoria Climbie died with 128 marks and scars on her body. She had been beaten with a hammer, a belt and looped wire - kept in a bath-tub and tied up in a bin liner for days on end. Her Great Aunt, Marie Therese Kouao and Ms Kouao's boyfriend, Carl Manning are now serving life sentences for her murder.
In the interview with Angus Stickler she said "This little girl had suffered all forms of the most horrible abuse. My job was to protect children."
She admitted to only skim reading Victoria's medical documents left in her pigeon hole, but she claims a doctor at the North Middlesex hospital, where the child was cared for, had said the marks on Victoria's body did not suggest physical abuse.
The consultant paediatrician wrote a letter which accompanied the medical documents, blamed the marks on Victoria's body were due to the skin condition scabies, rather than abuse. Ms Arthurworrey said she took this opinion to be 'definitive'
She admits it was a mistake not to read the full medical report, which detailed how Victoria's face and hands were "swollen and covered with marks", and said the girl had tried to cut herself with a razor blade.
It also said Kouao had been "desperate" to leave Victoria with a child minder permanently and was noted to have spoken "harshly" to the girl.
She admitted to serious failings in the way she dealt with Victoria's case, but argued that she was badly let down by her managers and the organisation that employed her.
"We were mainly inexperienced and it was like the blind leading the blind," she said.
"Cases were just plonked on our desks with no discussion beforehand. There were never enough hours in the day to get the work completed and I was just rushing from case to case.
"Nobody seemed to care about the work that we were doing or how we did it."
She claimed social workers did not receive proper working guidelines from management until after Victoria died.
She said she was made a scapegoat and that it was the system at Haringey Social Services that was at fault.
Background to the case:
Ìý
Adjo Victoria Climbie (2 November 1991 - 25 February 2000) was better known as Anna Climbie or Victoria Climbie. She was born in Abobo near Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and aged seven was sent by her parents to Europe with her great-aunt Marie Therese Kouao for a chanceÌýof betterÌýeducation. They travelled first to France, and then to England. It was in London where MsÌýKouao met bus-driver Carl Manning, and she and Victoria moved into his North London flatÌý in July 1999. It wasÌýin this Tottenham flat where Victoria was abused by both Kouao and Manning. She was admitted to casualty on 24 February 2000 unconscious and suffering from hypothermia; she died the next day. The 91Èȱ¬ Office pathologist noted 128 separate injuries and scars on her body.
Marie Therse Kouao and Carl Manning were charged with child cruelty and murder. During police interviews, both claimed that Victoria was possessed. Their trial ran from November 2000 to January 2001. Both were found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Victoria's murder led to a public inquiry, chaired by Lord Herbert Laming which investigated the role of social services, the NHS and the police in her death. The Laming report found that on at least 12 occasions care workers could have saved her life. The highly critical report has lead to further reforms of the way in which child protection measures are implemented in the UK, including the creation of a database to keep track of every child in Britain in order to better co-ordinate the notes of doctors and social workers.
 Back to Reports 91Èȱ¬page
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