End this wall of silence
MPs’ fury at buck-passing over Poppi’s death as they demand new investigation
THE death of Poppi Worthington must be reinvestigated by another police force to break the wall of silence around the case, MPs said yesterday.
They demanded a fresh attempt to secure justice for the 13-month-old after a senior judge ruled she suffered a grave sexual assault by her father.
But their attempts at securing a new inquiry were met with an astonishing attitude from the officials who have already failed Poppi. All of them passed the buck yesterday. Even Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner refused to respond to questions over his apparent failure to hold his force to account.
The demands for justice had intensified after Tuesday’s dramatic statement from a High Court judge that Poppi’s father, Paul, had brutally abused the toddler who died in hospital in December 2012. The revelation sparked outrage about the initial, bungled police inquiry and the application by Cumbria County Council to stop details of her death being made public for 15 years.
The first inquest lasted just seven minutes, disclosed no evidence, and said the cause of death was ‘unascertained’. It was later quashed as unlawful.
And the facts surrounding Poppi’s death began to be made public only after an 18-month legal fight by the Daily Mail and other media groups.
Yet yesterday MPs were told they must wait for a new inquest to determine the ‘full facts’ – killing off the prospect of a new police inquiry.
Labour MP John Woodcock said last night: ‘Government ministers have a choice – they either step in to break this official wall of silence or become complicit in it. They should act now to support justice for Poppi.’
The Barrow and Furness MP asked ministers what was being done to protect children from Paul Worthington, 48, who has so far escaped prosecution over his daughter’s death.
‘The combined failure of several agencies is every bit as serious as those which contributed to the deaths of Victoria Climbie and of Baby Peter in Haringey.
‘Will the Government make clear that it values Poppi’s life as greatly by ordering now a similarly thorough independent investigation into how the failings happened? Will they, as the second inquest is continuing, order a separate force to come in and take over the investigation into Poppi Worthington’s death to try to salvage some prospect of justice for her life?
‘And what will the Government do to ensure the safety of the Worthington children and all of the children in the community in Barrow, given that Paul Worthington is still walking free?’
Calls for a force other than Cumbria to begin a new investigation of Poppi’s death won backing from Labour frontbenchers and Cumbria MPs including Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron and environment minister Rory Stewart.
And two former directors of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald and Sir Keir Starmer, said there was no reason why police should not reopen an investigation immediately. But Home Office minister Karen Bradley said there could be no new police investigation unless new evidence came to light.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission into the conduct of Cumbria officers cannot be published until the new inquest, she added.
However Cumbria coroner David Roberts said the new inquest was ‘technically suspended’. He would need to conhis
‘A criminal is out there’
sider the judge’s findings and only then ‘proceed in due course’. The Crown Prosecution Service, which says there is too little evidence for a prosecution, merely said it would look at any fresh evidence from a new inquest.
The growing furore followed the publication of the findings of two separate inquiries by High Court family judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson. He ruled that Poppi died following a penetrative assault by Mr Worthington, who had been watching pornography before taking the child to bed at their home in Barrow.
The judge found that officers had ignored warnings from a pathologist that Poppi had been attacked. His report listed 12 serious errors and omissions by police, social workers and medical staff. These meant that the most basic evidence that could have helped secure a prosecution was lost or never collected.
This included Mr Worthington’s laptop, Poppi’s last nappy, clothes and bedclothes, and material from the hospital where Poppi was declared dead. Forensic tests were not carried out, the family home was not secured, senior officers did not visit the home and the parents were not arrested and interviewed by police for eight months.
Last night former children’s minister Tim Loughton said: ‘We have to see how a new criminal investigation can get off the ground, because there is a criminal out there whoever he or she may be, responsible for that child’s death, by the looks of it. Why are there attempts to keep it secret when clearly there is a public interest in finding out what had happened to this child, and the safety of remaining siblings within that family?’