Social workers paralysed by fear

Ainlee Labonte, a two-year-old little girl, was tortured to death because social workers and health visitors were paralysed by fear of her violent parents and would not visit their home, a report concluded yesterday. She was found covered in 64 scars, scalds, cigarette burns and bruises when she died in January, she had not been fed for two days and was half the normal weight of a child her age. Her parents, Leanne Labonte, 20, and Dennis Henry, 39, of Plaistow, East London, were jailed for manslaughter and child cruelty in September for ten and 12 years respectively.

The report by Miss Kenward, an independent child protection expert, found that her death could have been avoided had health authorities, social services and police in Newham, east London, worked together. It noted that there had been fears for Ainlee’s health and safety from birth. Her mother, who was 17 when Ainlee, her second child, was born, had been abused as a child and was known to social services. Labonte and Henry failed to co-operate with health and social workers and used their knowledge of the system to switch between GPs, hospitals, health visitors and housing providers to prevent an overall picture of the children’s needs emerging. It also led professionals to focus on the parents, rather than the children.

Ainlee's family had been visited 53 times by police in the 18 months before she died, with 32 of the inquiries following reports of domestic violence, many of them calls from worried neighbours. The independent inquiry found that care workers were so terrified of Ainlee's parents that they abandoned the girl to her fate. The report said: "One by one the agencies withdrew for personal safety reasons." Health professionals and housing officers had refused "because of intimidation" to visit Ainlee's family home for fear of being attacked by her "threatening and confrontational" parents. "The fear with which the family are regarded leads to almost paralysis in terms of action." She said the professionals had shown greater concern for their own safety than for that of the couple's children. Miss Kenward said Ainlee had experienced unimaginable pain and loneliness before she died, aged two years and seven months.

The report made a series of recommendations for better training in child protection for all services coming into contact with families. It said home visits should not be cancelled without the authority of senior managers and "all staff should know where their personal responsibility lies".

Kathryn Hudson, Newham's director of social services, said a new action plan was being implemented to try to prevent a similar incident, but no member of staff had been disciplined over Ainlee's death. "No single individual is held accountable for the death of Ainlee," said Mrs Hudson. "I am sure there are individuals from all agencies who will bitterly regret things they have done and things they didn't do which could have made a difference to this case." She said social services in the borough - and across the country - faced major problems in finding and keeping child protection staff.

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Article:	Social workers left Ainlee to die because they were paralysed by fear of her violent parents
Date created/last modified:	19th December, 2002
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