Mother pleads for new Poppi case after ‘grotesque’ police failings
Coroner finds toddler’s father sexually assaulted her before she died
THE mother of Poppi Worthington last night pleaded with prosecutors to reexamine the death of her 13-month-old daughter after a coroner ruled that the girl was sexually assaulted by her father in her final hours.
After a five-year fight for answers, the coroner ruled that Paul Worthington had assaulted her before she was found dead. It is the first time that the cause of Poppi’s death in December 2012 has been fully examined.
The Crown Prosecution Service has refused to bring criminal charges because a series of police failings means there is a lack of evidence.
After the verdict, Poppi’s mother, who cannot be named, said that the “past five years have been a complete nightmare” and she was “relieved that despite there being some gaps, she is now closer to the truth, even though that truth is devastating”.
“Not knowing what happened to Poppi on that day, and knowing that there were evidence-gathering failures by the police in the very early stages of the investigation, has made things even worse,” her lawyer Fiona Mcghie said.
She added that this was the third time, including two fact-finding hearings by a judge, that a court had found that Poppi had been abused. “My client hopes that the CPS will take another look at this case,” Ms Mcghie said.
John Woodcock, the Labour MP for Barrow-in-furness, where Poppi was living at the time of her death, yesterday wrote to the Home Secretary calling for a public inquiry.
Mr Woodcock said: “That little girl will probably never get justice because of grotesque failings into the police investigation into her death but we owe it to her to campaign for a public inquiry.”
Because the CPS has already re-examined the case twice, Mr Woodcock said he had “little optimism” for criminal charges, but added: “If there are people who think there is a serious chance of being able to get a conviction on the evidence available, then no stone should be left unturned.”
Yvette Cooper, Labour chairman of the home affairs select committee, said yesterday: “This is a deeply disturbing and distressing case. Poppi Worthington and her mother have been completely failed by the system. We need a full investigation into how this has gone so badly wrong.” The coroner, who had pointed out that Mr Worthington was the only person who knew what had happened in those final hours, said that his accounts “do not stand up to scrutiny”.
David Roberts heard evidence from more than 40 witnesses after he applied to the High Court to quash an original inquest, held in 2014, which lasted seven minutes and was shrouded in secrecy. Through his lawyers, Mr Worthington had supported the second hearing, but when his moment in court came, he refused to answer 252 questions in case they might incriminate him. Poppi’s mother said last night that she was “disappointed” that he refused to give “crucial evidence”.
Recording a narrative verdict with the cause of death as asphyxia from “unsafe sleeping conditions”, Mr Roberts said that at some time after 2.30am, Poppi was taken from her cot into the double bed, where she was assaulted. He said the verdict of unlawful killing was not available to him, as he would need to be satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that she had died as a result of murder or manslaughter, and he had concluded the abuse did not kill her.
Poppi was failed by authorities almost from the moment police were informed of her death. Officers did not secure the scene and allowed vital evidence, including her nappy, to be thrown away. Despite a pathologist raising concerns that she had been sexually assaulted, a criminal investigation was not opened for eight months, meaning that no witnesses were formally interviewed.
Nazir Afzal, who decided not to charge Mr Worthington in 2015 as head of the CPS for the North West, said at the weekend that police failures prevented a trial.
Poppi was buried after her body was released by the coroner in February 2013, despite the full inquest not having concluded, meaning her cause of death was never formally established.
Mr Worthington has consistently denied any wrongdoing. A CPS spokesman said: “We are aware of today’s verdict. There are no plans to review our charging decisions in relation to this case, but we would of course consider any referral from the coroner.”
Poppi Worthington was just 13 months old when she died in December 2012 at her home in Cumbria. She was put to bed by her mother a healthy child, and the following day was brought downstairs by her father lifeless and with internal injuries that could not be explained. In the six years since, the failure to uncover what happened to Poppi has been a story of astonishing incompetence, indolence and injustice.
To begin with the police officers who were called appear to have made the most cursory investigation. Despite the signs of injury they did not formally question Poppi’s father Paul, who had twice before been a supect in connection with child abuse allegations. He was only brought in for questioning eight months later, by which time evidence that might have been used in any prosecution, including clothes and a nappy, had been either discarded or lost. Mr Worthington’s laptop was not requested by police and, when they finally asked for it, the device had been sold and sold again, so was unavailable to any possible trial.
An inquest in Barrow took just seven minutes to conclude that the death was “unexplained”. And that would have been that. Legal efforts to keep this whole mess secret were only thwarted by newspapers and media organisations challenging attempts to bury it. Cumbria County Council applied for a 15-year ban even on the disclosure of Poppi’s name, partly because it might be “unfair” to the agencies who dealt with the baby’s case.
As a result of media efforts, the High Court ordered another inquest which yesterday, after a three-week hearing, ruled that Poppi had died as a result of injuries sustained in a sexual assault by her father. Mr Worthington exercised his right under inquest rules to say nothing that might incriminate him.
To call this an unsatisfactory state of affairs would be an understatement. It is outrageous that so many public agencies, from the police and social services to the coroner in the first inquest, were so slapdash in their approach that a serious injustice has occurred. These egregious failures mean Mr Worthington, who denies wrongdoing, has been denied a trial where his guilt or otherwise could be determined beyond reasonable doubt rather than on “a balance of probabilities”, the test applied by the coroner. Prosecutors must take a fresh look at this case to see if the reputation of the justice system can be salvaged even at this late stage.