Climbi Inquiry: The chief executive of Haringey Council has apologised for the authority's poor behaviour surrounding the public inquiry into the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie.

David Warwick was summonsed before the inquiry on Tuesday to explain why the council had held back hundreds of key documents, crucial to the inquiry.

Inquiry Chairman Lord Laming said he had become "increasingly frustrated" with the council, which submitted a further 260 new documents last Thursday after the council's Director of Social Services Anne Bristow was ordered to bring every missing file to the witness stand.

Lord Laming said the "long and sorry saga of missed dates and missed timetables" had resulted in unnecessary extra costs.

Many of the documents relate to competency assessments of members of staff who have already appeared before the inquiry, which may mean that they will have to be called again.

Lord Laming said: "I think you need to advise me as to whether or not the experience that we have had with Haringey hitherto is part of a deliberate plan, despite your fine words, to actually prevent this inquiry doing a thorough job or whether, to be brutal about it, it is just down to incompetence."

Mr Warwick, who has been the chief executive since May 2000, said he was "acutely embarrassed" to be summonsed before the inquiry.

He said: "The council apologises to the inquiry if it believes our actions have hindered its task but as I have set out before, that has never been our intention."

The death of Victoria Climbie last February is one of the worst child abuse cases in British legal history. Her great-aunt Marie Therese Kuao and lover Karl Manning were jailed for life in January for her murder.

Victoria's body was found to have 128 separate injuries inflicted by her guardians.

A former Haringey social services manager who faces prosecution after breaching a summons to appear at the public inquiry into Victoria Climbie's death pleaded not guilty at Camberwell Green Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Carole Baptiste could face a six month jail sentence or a £1,000 fine if found guilty of breaching the summons under the Local Government Act 1972. The case has been adjourned for trial to February 20.

December 20, 2001 15:30