Toddler death inquiry announced
A fatal accident inquiry is to be held into the death of a toddler murdered by his mother, the Crown Office has said.
Kimberley Hainey, 37, was found guilty by a majority verdict last month of murdering her son Declan at a flat in Bruce Road, Paisley, Renfrewshire.
She was jailed for life by the High Court in Glasgow on January 12 and ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years.
The Crown Office said the decision to hold a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into her son's death was made by Crown counsel. Hainey was also convicted of failing to report Declan's death to police or other authorities and of concealing his body at the flat.
The court heard that Declan's body was "mummified" when it was found in March 2010 when he would have been 23 months old. Experts said he had been dead for several months. The cause of death is not known but he is said to have last been seen alive when he was 15 months old.
Hainey was also sentenced to seven years for attempting to defeat the ends of justice, which will run concurrently with the 15 years. She pretended the child was being cared for by family members or that he was at nursery, leading people to believe he was still alive.
Following the trial at the High Court in Glasgow she was found guilty of wilfully ill-treating, neglecting and abandoning the toddler, and exposing him in a manner that was likely to cause him suffering or injury to his health.
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont welcomed the news of an inquiry but urged the Scottish Government to instruct a wider probe into how vulnerable children are protected.
She said: "Declan Hainey was not the first child to be let down by the system and I fear he will not be the last. Across Scotland, we have social workers overburdened and the inevitability of children abandoned by their parents and abandoned by a system that is supposed to care.
"I am calling for Alex Salmond to order an independent, wide-ranging inquiry into how Scotland's most vulnerable children are protected and how those efforts are being affected by the budget choices the Scottish Government is making."
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2012, All Rights Reserved.
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Weather for Carluke
Thursday 23 February 2012
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