Whitehawk schoolgirl pleaded for help

9:27am Wednesday 3rd December 2008

A string of failures by social services left an eight-year-old living unprotected with her murderer father in the house where he bludgeoned her mother to death.

A damning report into Brighton's body-in-the-box murder published yesterday has raised fresh concerns over children's care services in Britain.

It came just a day after the conclusion of the Baby P case in Haringey, North London, and a pledge from Children's Secretary Ed Balls for national level changes.

The report, titled Case G, was the result of a special case review into the circumstances around the death of 38-year-old Catherine Genestin in Maresfield Road in May 2007.

She was hit over the head with a wooden mallet by her husband Andre, 49, and stuffed into a car roofbox in the couple's back garden which their daughter used as a slide.

The body went undiscovered for more than five weeks and the young girl lived alone with her mentally unstable father throughout. He was eventually jailed in May.

The report by independent consultants said:

• Brighton and Hove City Council social services delayed checking on the child's wellbeing even after she told her headteacher she was worried about her mother and the head tipped them off. When they eventually visited they accepted a false explanation from Genestin and closed the case.

• The head worried she was not listened to because of a reputation for overreacting, a claim denied by social services.

• The girl had tried to inform authorities about her violent father from as young as six when she called police to report her mother being assaulted.

• Crucial information about Genestin s history of domestic violence had not been passed on to services in Brighton and Hove when the family moved from Reading in 2005.

The report set out a list of 11 recommendations of how health, social and education services needed to be improved to prevent a repeat.

They included safeguards to ensure all relevent parties were informed about important medical and social history, and improvements to communication networks between local authorities and among groups. More training was recommended in all areas. Particular improvements were called for in the ways children were able to speak out and how their pleas were handled.

Di Smith, director of Brighton and Hove's Children and Young People's Trust, who took up her position after the incident had occurred, offered an official apology to the child yesterday and pledged to try to give her a brighter future.

Mrs Smith said: "We fully accept the report's recommendations. In particular we should have put more emphasis on listening to the child.

"We are all working hard to make sure that her life chances are secured with appropriate support. The review is not suggesting that any one individual's action would have changed the outcome, but a different response to a number of incidents might have altered the overall course of events."

A council spokesman said no sackings were expected as a result.