ChildrenTimelineNearly three years after Victoria Climbié's parents sent her to Britain from Africa in the hope of a better life a public inquiry begins into her murder. The investigation will determine why the horrific abuse she suffered was never tackled despite repeated contact with social services, the NHS and the police.
November 1998
Seven-year-old Victoria Climbié left her parents' house in the shanty suburb of Abobo in the Ivory Coast. She was "happy and excited" about her new life with her aunt Marie Thérèse Kouao in Britain. Her parents hoped she would get a good education. Instead she was kept prisoner in the tiny studio flat in Tottenham, north London, shared by her aunt and her boyfriend Carl Manning who brutally tortured her.
July 15 1999
A cut and bruised Victoria was seen by consultant paediatrician and child protection doctor, Ruby Schwartz, at Central Middlesex hospital. But she was released back into her aunt's care as the doctor was persuaded that her injuries were self-inflicted - a result of scratching because of itchiness from scabies. Haringey council social worker Lisa Arthurworrey and child protection officer PC Karen Jones later cancelled their August 4 home visit when they heard Victoria had scabies.
August 6 1999
After two weeks in North Middlesex hospital, Victoria returned to her aunt's flat. In a meeting at Haringey's social services department on the previous day, Kouao had told Ms Arthurworrey and PC Jones that she poured hot water over her niece's head because it was itchy and that the girl injured herself with a fork and spoon.
November 1 1999
Victoria made an unfounded sexual allegation against Manning, withdrawn the next day. Ms Arthurworrey believed Kouao put the child up to it in order to get housing. PC Jones was assigned to find out why the false allegation was made. Although her letter to Kouao was ignored, no further action was taken.
February 25 2000
After months of torture, Victoria died of hypothermia at her aunt's flat. She had 128 injuries all over her body. The Home Office pathologist who later examined her corpse described the case as "the worst case of child abuse" he had ever seen.
November 20 2000
The trial of Marie Thérèse Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning for Victoria's murder opened at the Old Bailey, London. The court heard how the girl was beaten and tied up for 24 hours or more. The child protection team's investigation of Victoria's case, which allowed her to be returned to Kouao and Manning, was criticised as "blindingly incompetent". The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children called for a complete overhaul of child protection procedures.
January 12 2001
Marie Thérèse Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning were jailed for life for Victoria's murder. Judge Richard Hawkins said: "What Anna endured was truly unimaginable." The health secretary, Alan Milburn, ordered a statutory inquiry into her death headed by former chief inspector of social services, Lord Laming. The government also placed Haringey social services department under special measures requiring close supervision by the social services inspectorate.
April 22 2001
The government announced that the inquiry into Victoria's death will be public. John Hutton, then the health minister responsible for children's services, said it would be the first "tripartite" investigation using powers under the Children's Act, the NHS Act and Police Act. In effect there would be three simultaneous inquiries, producing a single report in spring 2002 to the health secretary and the home secretary.
May 7 2001
Lord Laming appealed for witnesses to give evidence at the inquiry. Speaking to the Guardian, he disclosed that ministers believed her death may have been the result of "a gross failure of the system" rather than the failings of individual staff.
May 31, 2001
The official inquiry into how Victoria died opened. Lord Laming revealed that her killers, Marie Thérèse Kouao and Carl Manning, were likely to be called to give evidence on the role of social services in the period leading up to her death.
July 31 2001
The high court ordered that internal disciplinary proceedings against the two Haringey social workers suspended from duty following Victoria's murder be postponed for at least two months. But the court rejected attempts by Lisa Arthurworrey and Angella Mairs to delay the disciplinary proceedings, in which both were accused of gross misconduct, until after the Climbié inquiry had reported in a year's time.
September 21 2001
The head of the commission for racial equality, Gurbux Singh, was ordered to give evidence at the inquiry. Mr Singh was chief executive of Haringey council at the time when its social services failed to act and stop the horrific abuse of Victoria. By now 232 witnesses had been called, of whom 144 were to take the stand.
September 23 2001
Victoria's parents, Bethe Amoissi and her husband, Francis Climbié, travelled from the Ivory Coast to Britain. They would be the first witnesses to give evidence at the inquiry on the following Friday.
September 26 2001
The inquiry begins at government offices in Elephant and Castle, south London, where the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence was also conducted
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