Baby girl shaken to death by violent father just weeks after being taken off the at risk register

Judge David Hodson said Alisha Allen's death might have been avoided if her parents had received the proper help.

He spoke out after hearing how she was removed from the at risk register by social workers only weeks before she was shaken 'like a rag doll' by her father Gary Allen, 26.

Alisha Allen was on the at risk register even before she was born but was taken off just days before she died

Alisha was classified as a ' vulnerable' child even before she was born in August 2006.

But when her parents moved home a month later their new local authority decided instead to treat her as 'a child in need'.

Although they were still visited by social workers and a health visitor, Alisha's progress would have been monitored more closely had she remained on the at risk register.

In January 2007, Allen picked the crying toddler out of her cot and in a fit of rage shook her with such force that she never recovered from her brain injuries.

She died three days later in hospital.

Allen initially claimed he had nothing to do with the death of his five-month-old daughter and repeatedly changed his story, blaming his then partner. But in April he finally admitted her manslaughter.

Yesterday, he was jailed for five years while Alisha's mother, Claire Morton, 31, his former partner, was given a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years for allowing or causing the death of a child.

Gary Allen was jailed for five years for manslaughter while Claire Morton received a one-year suspended sentence for allowing her daughter's death

Newcastle Crown Court was told that Morton's plea to a lesser charge was accepted on the basis that she was in fear of Allen at the time of Alisha's death.

Judge Hodson said: 'This case is yet another example of the tragic death of a baby in circumstances where there have been undoubted failings within two social services departments.

'It can be observed that here, certainly, were two people who needed as much help as they could be given by social services and various agencies and it has to be said you did not receive that necessary help.

'If you had, this tragic case might have been avoided. But, again it has to be said, the direct responsibility for Alisha's death rests with you two defendants and no one else.'

The judge said he accepted Allen was 'threatening, bullying and violent' towards Morton and said he has never expressed any feelings of remorse, regret or even used the word 'sorry' for what he did.

The court was told that social workers had become involved with Morton after she gave birth to her first child, by another man, in December 2002.

By June 2005 she had started dating unemployed Allen, who regularly complained about his bad temper to his GP.

Their local social services in Sunderland later decided that Alisha should be placed on the At Risk Child Protection Register.

But when the couple moved to a new home in Bournmoor, social workers decided to remove her from the register. Although it is only two miles away, Bournmoor is covered by Durham County Council social services.

Gail Hopper, chairman of Durham Local Safeguarding Children Board, said: 'Shortly after Alisha's death, we initiated a serious case review.

'The agencies involved have taken lessons learned from this process and have instigated any improvements to their practice and procedures or other action they deemed necessary.'

Sunderland City Council declined to comment.