"If you came across a child in need in Haringey, it would be better to call out the RAC than social services," he said. Summing up the evidence in the trial over the murder of Anna Climbie, Nigel Rumfitt QC, defending Carl Manning, was withering about the "incompetence" of Haringey social services. "If you came across a child in need in Haringey, it would be better to call out the RAC than social services," he said. The position of Haringey as having a lot of questions to answer concerning Anna's death was reflected by the decision, taken yesterday by the Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, to put the authority under "special measures", while Lord Laming's independent, inter-agency inquiry into the circumstances around the murder takes place. Yesterday Anne Bristow, Haringey's director of housing and social services, admitted: "We should have acted to protect this child and we accept responsibility for our failure."Concerns over Haringey's social services record had already surfaced; last year the Social Services Inspectorate issued a damning assessment of the organisation's capabilities.Government teams will now move into the north London borough, and five Haringey social workers are under disciplinary investigation.
They include Lisa Arthurworrey, who had been qualified for two years when she took on Anna's case. Linda Stern QC, for the prosecution, blamed Ms Arthurworrey for the return of Anna to Kouao in August 1998, despite medical staff's suspicions of abuse.Ms Arthurworrey's decision, Ms Stern claimed, was based on inadequate investigation, and led ultimately to Anna's death. In court Ms Arthurworrey suggested that the "master and servant" relationship that doctors observed between Kouao and Anna might have been a misunderstanding of more formal Afro-Caribbean family relations.Yesterday, Taki Suleiman, of Haringey's housing and social security department, said an internal inquiry had been set up and would be examining whether social workers' assumptions about black families had led to their inaction. But Haringey is not the only agency that will now come under scrutiny. Two London hospitals, two police child protection units and two other social services departments came into contact with Anna in the lonely and brutal year she spent in London in Kouao and Manning's "care".Commander Carole Howlett, responsible for the Metropolitan Police's child protection teams, accepted that there were police "failings and shortcomings" in the Anna Climbie case.
PC Karen Jones, the police child protection officer also singled out for harsh criticism by Ms Stern, is among eight police officers under the scrutiny of the disciplinary inquiry. One inspector has already been moved to non-operational duties. And another officer has been transferred from the child protection team.The west London boroughs of Ealing and Brent both came into contact with Anna in her first weeks in London, before she moved to Carl Manning's flat in Tottenham, north London, within Haringey borough. Both councils consider their roles to have been peripheral, but that will be for Lord Laming to decide.It was Ealing that paid for emergency hostel accommodation for Kouao and Anna after they arrived penniless in London in the spring of 1998, after mysteriously abandoning Kouao's home in Paris. Michael Gledhill QC, defending Kouao, said Ealing's decision to cut off benefits in May, after concluding that Kouao had made herself intentionally homeless when she left France, forced Kouao and Anna to move in with Manning.A few weeks later, in July 1998, Anna was admitted to the Central Middlesex Hospital with what were believed to be "non-accidental" injuries. Ruby Schwartz diagnosed scabies and released her back to Kouao. Ms Schwartz said yesterday she stood by her diagnosis, although a skin specialist at the North Middlesex Hospital was unable to find any trace of scabies two weeks later.Yesterday Dr John Riordan, director of Central and North Middlesex Hospitals, said that Dr Schwartz was a "good doctor doing a good job".
No doctors or nurses were the subject of a disciplinary inquiry, he said.There are many questions still to be answered; for example, why did Ms Arthurworrey never see the photographs of Anna's injuries taken by the North Middlesex Hospital? And why did Anna, who came to Europe for a better education, fail to attend a single class during her terrible year in London?. A teenager who died with two of his friends when his car hit a tree had passed his driving test only 48 hours before the accident. A teenager who died with two of his friends when his car hit a tree had passed his driving test only 48 hours before the accident. Simon Ingham, 18, was driving his Vauxhall Nova when it spun out of control on a hill and smashed into a tree on the A286 near Midhurst, West Sussex, on Thursday night.College friends Steven McGill, 18, from Midhurst, and Manh Hung La, 16, from Chichester, also died after suffering multiple injuries in the accident.A fourth passenger who was sitting in the front of the vehicle survived. He suffered a broken nose and bruising.The teenagers, who were all students at nearby Chichester College of Art, Science and Technology, were on their way to Midhurst when the car veered out of control.Mr Ingham's mother, Ruth, from Chichester, said yesterday: "He was a very caring boy We are all absolutely devastated by this He was just a brilliant son. He had just had his 18th birthday and had only passed his driving test on Tuesday."The surviving teenager was taken to hospital in Chichester. His family was by his bedside yesterday.A 50-year-old man who saw the crash scene, who declined to be named, said: "It was a real mess. I must have been about 30 seconds behind at the time and when I came over the brow of the hill saw that the car had hit a tree.