Home of tragic Khyra Ishaq was visited several times by police and social workers

Feb 25 2010 By Matthew Cooper, Press Association

Khyra Ishaq's agonising and drawn-out starvation occurred after numerous visits to her Birmingham home by teachers, police, social workers and council home-schooling experts.

Birmingham City Council, which was aware of concerns about the seven-year-old's welfare almost five months before her death, came under fire within days of the tragedy in May 2008.

It emerged during the trial of Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza that the council had been notified of concerns about the child's welfare when she was withdrawn from school in December 2007.

The original trial of the two defendants was told that the deputy headteacher of Khyra's school made three phone calls to social services within the space of 24 hours to express concerns for her welfare.

It is known that several visits were then made to Khyra's Handsworth home, although she was seen by social workers on only one occasion - for around ten minutes on her mother's doorstep.

Among those who called at Gordon's terraced home in Leyton Road was social worker Ranjit Mann. Ms Mann told Birmingham Crown Court she called at the property on January 28, 2008, but no-one was in.

Ms Mann, who never met Miss Gordon or Khyra, had no power to compel Gordon to arrange another visit and passed the matter on to colleague Sanya Scott before leaving the educational welfare department on February 1.

Ms Scott and another social worker, senior practitioner Anne Gondo, went to Leyton Road more than three weeks later, on February 21.

On that occasion, Khyra and two other children were brought to the door by Gordon, but neither social worker saw any cause for concern.

Giving evidence during the re-trial of Gordon and her partner, Ms Scott estimated that the visit had lasted around 30 minutes and that she had seen Khyra for around 10 minutes.