Hodge urges agency cooperation in child protection cases
Questions are tonight being asked as to how child protection agencies allowed seven year old Toni-Ann Byfield to be shot dead by suspected gangsters while visiting her father in London.
Toni-Ann was a ward of court and was under the care of Birmingham social services at the time of her murder.
Children’s Minister Margaret Hodge has stated that a full investigation into the killing will now take place.
Speaking on Channel Four this evening, Ms Hodge said: ‘We must make sure that people were properly responsible and accountable and that the information was properly shared, and that al the agencies that touched that little girl’s life were working together.’
It is now believed that Toni-Ann was killed after witnessing her father’s murder by members of an organised criminal gang.
Detective superintendent John Coles at the head of the investigation into Toni-Ann’s murder yesterday described the killing as the ‘most evil and despicable crime’ he had ever investigated.
Following the Laming report into the murder of eight year old Victoria Climbie, social services agencies were urged to be more vigilant of children thought to be at risk of violence and were told to share information more effectively between agencies attempting to protect children.
A man has been arrested and is still being questioned by police.
