Poppi’s father: I welcome a new police inquiry

THE father of 13-month-old Poppi Worthington last night denied killing her and said he welcomed a new inquiry into her death – insisting it would clear his name.

Paul Worthington went into hiding after a High Court judge named him as being responsible for his daughter’s death following a serious sexual assault.

It emerged on Thursday that Mr Worthington could yet be charged in connection with Poppi’s death after the Crown Prosecution Service announced it is to re-examine its original decision not to prosecute him.

Mr Worthington’s sister, Tracy, said he had fled his home town of Barrow-in-Furness for fear of retaliation and that the pair had spoken regularly by telephone in recent days.

He told her he welcomed the CPS announcement, saying: “I have nothing to hide so at the end of the day, if anyone can find anything that can go in my favour, it can clear me. I’m hoping that they might find some evidence. I just want to know how Poppi died.”

Ms Worthington said that her brother, who is understood to still be in the UK, was co-operating fully with the police. “They know where he is,” she said. “He speaks to them every day.”

Mr Worthington’s former partner and mother of two of his children also welcomed the CPS review. Speaking in public for the first time, Tina Collie, 45, from Cornwall, said: “All I want to see now is the truth come out.”

She added: “I had no concerns about the time I lived with him, but in 20 years people can and will change. I don’t think that for one minute he is the same person as the one I knew.”

It can also be revealed that during their investigation Cumbria police apparently failed to pursue the whereabouts of a laptop on which Mr Worthington claimed to be watching adult pornography the night that Poppi suffered her fatal injuries. A neighbour who bought the laptop from Mr Worthington told he sold it to someone else a few months later. He twice refused to tell police who the buyer was and it is unclear whether they eventually traced the laptop.

It also emerged yesterday that a serving Cumbria police officer, thought to be Det Insp Amanda Sadler, is to face a “performance meeting” which has the power of dismissal if gross incompetence is proved, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said.

‘I’m hoping that they find some evidence. I just want to know how Poppi died’