Poppi Worthington: Timeline of events surrounding infant's death as coroner readies inquest conclusions
Verdict due today on cause of 13-month-old child's demise following fatal collapse on 12 December 2012, which led to father being accused of sexual assault
Kim Pilling
Monday 15 January 2018 07:13 EST
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Here are the key events surrounding the death of Poppi Worthington.
- 12 December 2012 - Poppi Worthington dies suddenly aged 13 months after she collapses at her home in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and is rushed to hospital.
- February 2013 - Poppi is buried after the coroner releases her body.
- June 2013 - A full post-mortem report indicates the cause of death is unascertained.
- August 2013 - Poppi's parents are arrested and formally interviewed for the first time. Poppi's father, Paul Worthington, is questioned on suspicion of sexually assaulting his daughter - an allegation he denies.
- March 2014 - Fact-finding judgment on the circumstances of Poppi's death is delivered in private as part of family court proceedings involving other children in the family. Its publication is delayed in case it prejudices any criminal trial.
- October 2014 - HM Coroner for South Cumbria, Ian Smith - now retired - holds an inquest at Barrow Town Hall and takes just seven minutes to declare her death as unexplained after stating he was satisfied to rely on the findings of the private fact-finding judgment. The case is not listed in Poppi's name but as “a child aged 13 months”.
- January 2015 - HM Senior Coroner for Cumbria, David Roberts, confirms he will ask for a fresh inquest in a written reply to lawyers representing various media organisations who argued the October hearing was insufficient and therefore unlawful.
- March 2015 - Cumbria Police announce no charges will be brought against anyone over Poppi's death after they had previously passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for its consideration.
- April 2015 - Paul Worthington is granted a review of the March 2014 medical evidence, which further delays publication of the original fact-finding judgment.
- July 2015 - High Court judges order a fresh inquest into the youngster's death after the first hearing was deemed “irregular”.
- November 2015 - A hearing reviewing the medical evidence from the March 2014 court proceedings gets under way in Liverpool. Ahead of the hearing, Mr Justice Peter Jackson (now Lord Justice Peter Jackson) releases parts of his original fact-finding judgment which reveal that Cumbria Police did not conduct any “real” investigation into Poppi's death for nine months despite a senior pathologist raising concerns the girl's injuries were caused by “a penetrative sexual assault”.
- 19 January 2016 - The judge announced his findings that - on the balance of probabilities - Mr Worthington had sexually assaulted Poppi shortly before her death.
- 21 January 2016 - Paul Worthington's sister Tracy tells reporters that he has left Cumbria after being “hounded”.
- June 2016 - A Serious Case Review finds that Poppi's mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had a “difficult and traumatic childhood” in a family “with intergenerational experiences of neglect and abuse”. It also reveals that Paul Worthington is an ex-partner of a woman who was feared to have sexually exploited Poppi's mother.
- July 2016 - The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says there is “insufficient evidence” to charge Paul Worthington with any offence over his daughter's death.
- November 2016 - The CPS states that its decision not to charge was correct following an independent review of the evidence, prompted by a request under the victims' right to review scheme.
- 3 March 2017 - The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) finally publishes its 2015 findings into the initial police probe over Poppi's death. It finds the approach of senior detectives was “unstructured and disorganised” and that there were enough grounds to make an arrest on the day of Poppi's death.
- 27 November 2017 - The second inquest starts at County Hall, Kendal, and hears more than three weeks of evidence.
- 15 January 2018 - HM Senior Coroner for Cumbria, David Roberts, to give his conclusions.
PA