Recriminations grow over Baby P

By Tim Castle and Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - The outrage caused by the horrific death of Baby P was further ignited on Friday after news a whistleblower had warned about Haringey council's child protection measures six months before the toddler's death.

The government denied opposition accusations of "buck-passing" over failures that led to the 17-month-old boy dying from repeated beatings despite being on the council's "at risk" register.

Baby P's death was the second serious child welfare tragedy in the London borough in recent years following the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie by her guardians in 2000.

As the row and political recriminations grew, the social care regulator said concerns raised by a social worker had been taken up directly with Haringey and it was satisfied the council had dealt properly with the case.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) had been alerted after a lawyer acting for whistleblower Nevres Kemal, a former social worker at Haringey, wrote to the then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

The letter, sent in February 2007 six months before the baby was killed, had called for an investigation into the authority's failings in dealing with child abuse cases.

"Statutory child protection procedures are not being followed. Child sex abusers are not being tackled," it said.

"Our client whistleblew the fact that the sexual abuse had been ongoing for months and the new management brought in post-Climbie had not acted."