Climbie's killer ordered to appear before inquiry

The couple who tortured and killed eight-year-old Victoria Climbie have been ordered, in an unprecedented legal move, to give evidence to a public inquiry into her death.

The girl's great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and her partner, Carl Manning, who were both jailed for life in January, are to be called by Lord Laming's inquiry into Victoria's death, one of Britain's worst cases of child abuse .

It is thought to be the first time such a step has been taken with convicted murderers. The serial killer GP Harold Shipman was asked to give evidence before a public inquiry investigating the deaths of 401 of his patients but refused.

Yesterday, an insider at the Climbie inquiry said there was no question of Kouao refusing to appear. Unlike her boyfriend, who has been co-operative with the inquiry's written requests, Kouao, 45, will be ordered to attend in person after requests for her appearance were made by Victoria's parents and Haringey council.

Francis and Berthe Climbie welcomed the move to make the woman they had trusted with their child's care answer for her actions. Mr Climbie said: "We are here to find out the circumstances in which our daughter died. We must find out the truth and have justice. Marie-Therese was a part of what has happened."

Imran Khan, solicitor for the family, added: "What the family hope from Marie-Therese is that any sense of conscience or any sense of concern or fibre in her body would hopefully suggest that she answers the questions put to her.

"She has nothing to lose and it would help the family enormously in coming to terms with their grief and suffering. It's the very least she owes them."

Victoria suffered a "miserable and lonely" death, having been "imprisoned, beaten and starved" for months on end by Kouao and Manning, 28, at a flat in Tottenham, north London.

The two of them inflicted terrible cruelty on the child – 128 separate injuries were found at the time of her death – despite repeated involvement by social services, the police and doctors.

Manning will give evidence via video link from a secure location near Wakefield prison, where he is serving his sentence. He has already provided a written statement to the inquiry and co-operated fully when questioned during the Old Bailey trial which saw the pair's conviction for murder.

Kouao will be brought from Durham jila to give evidence in person, either next month or in January, Neil Garnham, QC, for the inquiry said. "Kouao may feel rather more reluctant to refuse to co-operate with this inquiry, and to answer our questions, if such a refusal has to be made from the chair in front of you rather than from the relative comfort of a room in prison," he said.

The inquiry has heard from several witnesses, including the social worker who closed the file on Victoria a week before her death. Lisa Arthurworrey said Kouao had managed to "dupe" them with a "veneer of respectability".

Mr Garnham told Lord Laming the great-aunt was being called in person because such a move would "enable you and your assessors to form a view as to her demeanour and plausibility and that may be relevant in the light of evidence given by witnesses already as to their perceptions of Kouao".

Mr Garnham said Kouao had kept silent after receiving legal advice that anything she said might prejudice her appeal against conviction. But he told the inquiry that, should she continue to refuse to answer questions, the matter could be referred to the Attorney General or a magistrates' court.

On the day she gives evidence the inquiry will move from its usual location in south London to a Crown Court for security reasons.