A consultant paediatrician who failed to diagnose sores and scars on the severely abused Victoria Climbié's 8 year old body as intentional injuries had charges of serious professional misconduct against her dropped by the UK General Medical Council last week.
Dr Ruby Schwartz's failure to alert social services to signs of abuse led to the child's return to the abusers who killed her.
Victoria had been taken to the Central Middlesex Hospital in July 1999 after waking up crying out with pain at her childminder's home in north London. Sores on her face and fingers oozed pus.
Dr Schwartz's diagnosis of scabies was decisive in discouraging police and social workers from further investigating the possibility of child abuse, the inquiry into Victoria's subsequent death was told. Dr Schwartz had thought that some lesions were the result of scratching caused by scabies and attributed older scars to insect bites or playtime incidents.
A locum doctor who accompanied Dr Schwarz during the examination of Victoria included the statement "no child protection issues" in her notes. Another locum on her first shift at the hospital told police and social workers that Dr Schwarz had ruled out child abuse.
In February 2002, Victoria was found dead at the home of her great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and the aunt's boyfriend, Carl Manning, with 128 separate injuries on her body.
The Medical Defence Union, which represented Dr Schwartz, said the decision to drop the charges followed an expert report commissioned by the GMC.
Dr Schwartz said in a statement, "The death of Victoria Climbié was a tragedy and I would like once again to extend my sympathies to her family. While it is impossible to forget this tragic event, I am relieved that the GMC has dropped the case against me. I understand that this was after the GMC commissioned an expert report which has been seen by my legal representatives. The past four years have been a difficult time for me, but I now want to move on from this and to continue to provide my patients with the best possible care and dedication I can."
Victoria had been entrusted to Ms Kouao by her parents, who sent her from her shanty town home in the Côte d'Ivoire to get a better education in Britain. Victoria was malnourished and had been kept naked and bound in a freezing bathroom, starved and beaten, and tied up in a plastic sack.
Ms Kouao and Mr Manning, are both serving life sentences for her murder. Dr Schwartz told the inquiry into the child's death in 2001 that she had been stunned and puzzled by social services' decision, despite her significant concerns about Victoria's welfare, to drop a child protection investigation: "I should have been clearer, particularly about the aspects of concern."
She added, "I feel devastated and saddened. We failed to protect her. I could have been more proactive in doing things, but at the time I was doing my best in trying to cover two paediatric units. At the time I was attempting far too many things unsupported."
The GMC said it was still considering whether to lay charges against Mary Rossiter, another paediatrician who examined Victoria two weeks later at the North Middlesex Hospital.