Mother: Climbie lessons not learned

Berthe Climbie said local authorities "gave their word but did not live up to their responsibilities" following the tragedy.

An inquiry into her eight-year-old daughter's death, chaired by Lord Laming, found there were several missed chances to save the youngster, and made more than 100 recommendations to the Government for reform.

But Mrs Climbie said the lessons had not been implemented and demanded a full review of the inquiry.

She told the BBC via a translator: "They gave their word, but they did not live up to the responsibility. I was betrayed. They gave me their words and I was betrayed.

"An inquiry of six months - they did not respect it. If they had respected it, children would still not be dying left and right and centre. It's not just one child, it's several. After Victoria there are many children who have died in tragic circumstances."

Victoria was sent to Europe by her parents, who hoped she would gain a better education than in her native Ivory Coast.

But she was starved, beaten with coat hangers and bicycle chains, bound naked and kept prisoner in a freezing bathroom in a squalid flat in Haringey, east London. When she died in February 2000 she weighed just 3st 10lb (24kg). She was found with 128 separate injuries.

Marie-Therese Kouao, Victoria's great-aunt, and her lover Carl Manning were convicted of murder and child cruelty in January 2001 and jailed for life for the crime.

Mrs Climbie is in the UK for the first time since the publication of Lord Laming's report five years ago to attend a conference organised by the Victoria Climbie foundation.