LINDA Opoku has just one question she wants answering: why did her baby die?

It is a question that the coroner, pathologist and detective in charge of the investigation have all failed to answer.

Jennifer Allen, who was looking after baby Sean and has a history of mental illness, has not been charged with any crime and she is not being prosecuted by the local authority.

Sean's mother will not be able to put her grief behind her until she knows why her baby died.

"I want to know what happened that day. Somebody is not telling me something. Even the pathologist couldn't tell me why my son died. There was nothing wrong with Sean, he was never sick," she said.

On the day of her son's inquest Mrs Opoku steeled herself to hear the details, feeling sure that she would finally be told everything she needed to know.

But the open verdict recorded by coroner Dr Elizabeth Stearns reflected the fact that the evidence failed to find a reason for Sean's sudden and unexpected death.

"I cried and couldn't sleep the night after the inquest. I was so upset and angry," said Mrs Opoku, speaking to the Guardian from her home in Orford Road.

She is reluctant to talk about her feelings towrds Mrs Allen without knowing what went on that day. But she is strongly critical of her behaviour in the hours after Sean's death.

"I feel very angry about Ashley being brought back to the house where she saw Sean dead in his pushchair," she said.

"She couldn't cope after that and was in her room screaming and shouting for ages afterwards. How could Jennifer have done that?"

"My daughter was the one who told her dad that Sean was dead."

Mrs Opoku, 35, is also at a loss to understand why Mrs Allen did not phone for an ambulance and why her husband did not call emergency services when his wife gave him the terrible news.

"It would have been my first instinct to phone an ambulance," said Mrs Opoku.

"I come from a Third World country, but I think people back in Ghana would have known that would be the right thing to do. I was really angry that she phoned her husband instead."

Mrs Opoku did not find out that the childminder had a history of mental illness until two months after her baby's death.

She told the Guardian: "If I had known she was mentally ill I would never have left my son with her. The council realised she was looking after children in 1986, it should have done something about it then.

"I have since heard that a psychiatric nurse visits her at home.

"They must have seen all the children there. Why was nothing done?

"I think something could be learned from this. All the other mothers should know when taking their children to childminders to find out whether they are registered or not. I didn't know about such things when I arrived from Ghana more than ten years ago. Nobody told me."

Mrs Opoku, who returned to her job as a kitchen assistant three months after Sean's death, said she could not understand why Mrs Allen had not been prosecuted for blatantly flouting childcare laws for 17 years.

"If I committed a crime I'm sure I would be prosecuted. So why not her?"

The couple are still grieving the death of their only son, and cannot bear to have reminders of him in the house.

The only photograph in their living room is of their daughter, Ashley, now eight.

Mrs Opoku said: "It's so hard. I have good days and bad days. But I had to give his photographs away, I couldn't bear to look at them."Linda Opoku

July 18, 2002 12:00