Laura Kane was on the 'at risk register'
when she was murdered.

Sunderland social services have now admitted
they made mistakes in her case.

SOCIAL workers are to review the cases of 400 children on a North-East "at risk" register after the agency responsible for the safety of murdered schoolgirl Laura Kane yesterday admitted it made mistakes.

Sunderland Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) said the nature and extent of neglect in the Kane family home was "much greater than was recognised".

The admissions were revealed yesterday in a critical report commissioned by the ACPC but which came from the findings of an independent investigation.

That was carried out after nine-year-old Laura, who was on Sunderland social services "at risk" register, was raped and murdered by Colin Bainbridge.

Sunderland social services director, John Marsden, acting as spokesman for the ACPC, said that although they could not have prevented Laura's murder they had made mistakes.

He revealed that care workers had failed to spot warning signs because of the family's circumstances.

"I think that poverty masked the abuse and neglect and people could not see through the impact of what was going on in the family," he said.

The report highlighted a number of areas were child protection procedures had fallen down.

It said the ACPC's child protection register could have been used "more effectively by professionals in the case".

It added: "If checks to the register had been made consistently, then this would have alerted professionals to patterns of repeating concerns.

"There were occasions where procedures were not followed, and some examples of poor communication were identified. Consequently the overall needs of Laura was not always considered adequately."

But Mr Marsden, who revealed that the ACPC had been involved with the family for the last 10 years, stressed that nothing could have been done to prevent Laura being murdered by Colin Bainbridge - now serving a life sentence.

"To say we could have predicted Laura's murder would be naive in the extreme. We had no knowledge whatever of Bainbridge. What happened to this poor little girl nobody could have prevented," he said.

The ACPC committee has now introduced 23 recommendations in a bid to try to ensure what happened to Laura would not happen to any other child on Wearside.

One of the first to be carried out will be a review of all cases involving children on Sunderland's social services child protection register.

"Work has already started in a number of areas, for example, an audit of child protection cases will now ensure that the lessons are applied widely," said Mr Marsden.

Mr Marsden told a press conference yesterday that social workers had concerns about potential sex abuse of Laura in 1995. He said the ACPC felt there was no evidence to remove her. He said: "We did intervene at the time but found no cause to remove her from the family home."

He also said that Laura had been visited by a social worker just weeks before she was killed but again there was no evidence to warrant removing her.

Mr Marsden said no one had been disciplined following the case. He said no individual was to blame for any deficiencies in the handling of the case. He added such a report followed any death or abuse of a child on the "at risk" register and the document will go to the Department of Health.

Carol Kane
Laura's mother, Carol, 37, hit out angrily at the report. Speaking from her home in Maple Terrace, Shiney Row, Sunderland, she said: "How dare they say there was neglect and abuse. Social services and other agencies never given me any help, they just put obstacles in our way. Nothing could have been done to prevent that evil man from getting to my little girl, but I resent the fact that they are saying I'm a bad parent."

Martin Kane
Laura's father expressed anger and disappointment yesterday with the report into the handling of his daughter's case.

Martin Kane, who left the family home in 1994, said the measures taken by Sunderland's Area Child Protection Committee did not go far enough. Mr Kane, 41, who lives in Newbottle, County Durham, said he was hoping for a lot more from the findings. He said: "The recommendations did not go far enough. I expected to see a lot more in the report. I thought they would have included that social workers should go into the home of a child thought to be in danger at least one or twice a week. There were other matters I expected to be dealt with.

"I just feel like no-one has listened to our points of view."

Colin Anderson
Sunderland Council leader Colin Anderson said: "I wanted complete transparency from the report and lessons learned. I wanted people to see what the situation was and I think that is what we got."

North Tyneside Council
The council currently has 179 children on its child protection register. "In a case such as this the recommendations are widely circulated so obviously we will be studying the points made in the report with a view to seeing what we can learn from them," said a spokesman.

Gateshead Council
Audrey Harrison, assistant director of social services at Gateshead, said the council was working to implement a national framework which will ensure that the child is central in any of its work with families.

"Good communication is a crucial element to any child protection process."

South Tyneside Council
The procedures for overseeing the child protection register were constantly reviewed in liaison with other agencies, said a spokesman.