Starved, tortured, killed, because social workers were too frightened to help her

Ainlee Labonte was found covered in 64 scars, scalds, cigarette burns and bruises when she died in January, aged two years and six months. She had not been fed for two days and was half the normal weight of a child her age.

Yesterday, a damning official inquiry found that a "paralysis" of fear had prevented social services employees, health workers and housing officials from coming to her rescue as she was starved and tortured to death by "violent and aggressive" parents.

The toddler's family had been visited 53 times by police in the 18 months before she died, with 32 of the inquiries following reports of domestic violence, many of them calls from worried neighbours.

The independent inquiry found that care workers were so terrified of Ainlee's parents that they abandoned the girl to her fate.

The report, by Helen Kenward, a child protection expert, said: "One by one the agencies withdrew for personal safety reasons." She said that health professionals and housing officers had refused "because of intimidation" to visit Ainlee's family home for fear of being attacked by her "threatening and confrontational" parents.

Leanne Labonte, 20, and Dennis Henry, 39, of Plaistow, east London, were jailed for manslaughter and child cruelty in September.

Ms Kenward wrote: "The fear with which the family are regarded leads to almost paralysis in terms of action." She said the professionals had shown greater concern for their own safety than for that of the couple's children.

The inquiry said: "The impact on [the children] of the violence of their parents was not evaluated. The children were living in an environment that adults were not prepared to visit."

The report uncovered a catalogue of failings, including a total absence of risk assessment, in spite of Henry's record of criminality and drug abuse and Labonte's known history of violence. It said: "There was no risk assessment on [Henry] who was clearly older than Leanne, anti-authority, violent and verbally aggressive."

On one official visit to the house, syringes and other drugs paraphernalia were found in the flat but the couple claimed they were a "ploy" to get better housing.

Five months before Ainlee died, she was seen by a social worker strapped into a high chair facing a bedroom wall. The parents explained that the punishment was "because she kept throwing food around".

The inquiry uncovered massive breakdowns in communication between agencies. "Communication between healthcare staff and health and social services was poor."

Police regarded Ainlee's parents as "a violent, aggressive, obstructive, devious and dishonest couple". But social work files failed to reflect these police concerns.

The inquiry's findings will once again send shockwaves through the social services sector, which is still reeling from revelations about the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié, who was tortured and starved to death, also in London, in February 2000.

When Victoria's great-aunt, Marie Thérèse Kouao, and her lover, Carl Manning, were given life sentences for murder in January last year, Ainlee had already been identified as worryingly underweight and "failing to thrive". Less than a year later, she was dead.

Yesterday Mary Marsh, the director of the child protection charity NSPCC, said the level of child killing in the UK was a "national outrage". She said: "The Government must act now to stop more child abuse deaths. The child protection system in this country is at a turning point."

Kathryn Hudson, the director of social services in the London borough of Newham, highlighted the difficulties of recruiting social services workers in London. She said none of her staff would be disciplined for the "shortcomings" in the protection that was given to Ainlee.

Ms Hudson said: "I am sure there are individual members of staff from all agencies who will bitterly regret things they have done or did not do which could have made a difference in this case."

Chief Superintendent John Boylin, the police commander in the borough of Newham, said that social workers would be employed at police station community safety units in an attempt to identify other children at risk.

The inquiry report made 47 recommendations for improvements in communication, supervision and training.

Publishing her findings, Ms Kenward blamed the lack of action to help prevent the death of Ainlee on "collective" rather than individual failure. "Ainlee got lost between the agencies," she said. "They all had information. What they didn't do was share it."