| Anna Climbie social workers try to stop disciplinary action |
Two social workers suspended from duty after the murder of eight-year-old Anna Climbie have started a High Court bid to prevent disciplinary action against them.
Their employer Haringey Council may take action against the pair before the completion of a public inquiry into the child's death.
Lisa Arthurworrey, who was assigned to look after Anna by the child protection unit of the council in north London, and her team leader Angella Mairs are accusing the council of acting in bad faith and through self-interest.
The also claim the council is trying to "usurp" the functions of the official inquiry set up under the chairmanship of Lord Laming.
Anna's mother had sent her to Britain from the Ivory Coast, hoping she would have a better life here.
But a year after her arrival, she died from neglect, malnutrition and hypothermia, with 128 separate injuries on her body, at the hands of her aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, 44, and her boyfriend Carl Manning, 28.
Anna had been repeatedly beaten with bicycle chains, buckles and shoes and forced to sleep, bound hand and foot, in a binliner in an unheated bathroom.
At the Old Bailey in January this year, Kouao and Manning were convicted of Anna's murder.
There were suggestions, strongly denied, that social workers and police decided not to continue visiting the child after her second release from hospital because of the fear of contracting scabies.
Phase 1 of the Laming inquiry is not due to start until September 26. Haringey Council plans to hold its own internal disciplinary hearing next week.
Story filed: 17:01 Friday 27th July 2001
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