Trial: Social services 'failed to visit tragic Khyra's home'

Jun 19 2009 by Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail

BIRMINGHAM Social Services failed to visit the home of a girl who later starved to death despite teachers from her school raising concerns, a jury heard.

A deputy headteacher told Birmingham Crown Court she contacted the city council’s children’s services department after Angela Gordon withdrew her seven-year-old daughter Khyra Ishaq and two other children in her care, from her primary school, which cannot be named for legal reasons.

The teacher, who also cannot be named, told the court she spoke to officers on the phone on December 19, 2007, to report the school’s concerns, before visiting Ms Gordon’s house with another staff member the same day.

The teacher said she waited a couple of minutes before Ms Gordon, 34, answered the door.

She said: “Ms Gordon stood with her arm against the inner front door. It was obvious we weren’t going to be invited into the family home.

“She wasn’t particularly welcoming, I would say she was agitated by our visit.”

The teacher said she faxed a written referral to the children’s services department at around 1.45pm the same day and expected to hear back within 24 hours. She said: “I called on December 20 to find out where the case was up to and was told by social services that the referral didn’t warrant an initial assessment.”

The teacher also contacted Thornhill Road Police Station to ask officers to make checks at the house.

Gordon and her partner Junaid Abuhamza, of Leyton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, deny murdering Khyra. Abuhamza, 30, has admitted cruelty charges relating to five children in his care and control.

Gordon denies the child cruelty charges, which are alleged to have been committed between December 2007 and May 17 2008.

(Proceeding)