Murder probe after baby boy on Climbie council 'at risk' list is found dead

The toddler had a broken back, fractured ribs and at least two fingernails missing when his mother took him to a hospital in North London. He died an hour later.

The child is understood to have been on the "at-risk" register of Haringey Council's social services - the same department which was accused of serious failings after the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie in 2000.

She had been starved to death after months of torture and neglect at the hands of her great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and her boyfriend, Carl Manning, who were both jailed for life.

The little boy's 25-year-old mother, from Tottenham, North London, was arrested after police were called to North Middlesex Hospital by concerned staff last Friday. She was later released on bail.

Her 31-year-old boyfriend was also arrested and then released on bail. Neither was charged.

Scotland Yard has refused to name the couple but said that the boy's death was being treated as "suspicious".

Haringey Council said it was unable to comment on the latest case while a police investigation continued.

However, its social workers and management were heavily criticised during an independent public inquiry by Lord Laming following the death of Victoria ClimbiÇ.

It revealed that, despite spending her final months dumped in a bath, tied up inside a bag and "being treated worse than a dog", the social services department formally closed Victoria's case on the day she died.

It is now involved in a joint investigation with police into the boy's death.

A post-mortem examination, carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, proved inconclusive.

Further tests are now being conducted to establish his cause of death.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said last night: "We are investigating the death of a 17-month-old boy brought into the North Middlesex Hospital on the morning of August 3.

"The death is being treated as suspicious: two people were arrested on suspicion of murder.

"Officers from the Child Abuse Investigation Command are investigating."

News of the death comes just 48 hours after social workers in West Yorkshire were criticised for failing to save four-year-old Leticia Wright, who was tortured to death by her mother, Sharon Wright, and her boyfriend, Peter McKenzie-Seaton.

They were jailed for life on Friday.