Nursery World - Findings strengthen call against smacking

The extent of Victoria Climbie's horrific injuries that led to her death was outlined by health secretary Alan Milburn in the House of Commons last week. Describing what she experienced as 'the worst cruelty' and 'the stuff of nightmares', he told how the eight-year-old girl had only come to England from the Ivory Coast because her parents wanted her 'to have the best education'. Instead, ten months after moving in with her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, in April 1999, and Kouao's boyfriend, Carl Manning, she was dead - 'murdered by the people who had taken the principal responsibility for caring for her'. Both are now serving life imprisonment.

Describing what she experienced as 'the worst cruelty' and 'the stuff of nightmares', he told how the eight-year-old girl had only come to England from the Ivory Coast because her parents wanted her 'to have the best education'. Instead, ten months after moving in with her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, in April 1999, and Kouao's boyfriend, Carl Manning, she was dead - 'murdered by the people who had taken the principal responsibility for caring for her'. Both are now serving life imprisonment.

Mr Milburn said, 'Manning told the trial Kouao would strike Victoria daily with a shoe, a coat hanger and a wooden spoon. Victoria's blood was found on Manning's football boots. He admitted hitting her with a bicycle chain.

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