VICTORIA CLIMBIE’S eldest brother has slammed social services’ failure to protect Sara Sharif from her murderous father and stepmother.
Speaking on the anniversary of his sister’s death, Jacques Climbie warned nothing has changed in the 25 years since the London schoolgirl was killed in one of the worst cases of child abuse in British history.
And he added: “It’s sad that lessons have not been learned from my sister’s death.”
Tragic Victoria, eight, died after months of horrific abuse at the hands of her French great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning.
Dr Nathaniel Carey, who conducted the postmortem, noted 128 separate injuries and scars, telling a public inquiry the case was “the worst I have ever dealt with”.
She was known to four local authorities, two child protection police teams, two hospitals and an NSPCC centre, but the judge described the people overseeing her case as “blindingly incompetent”.
The public inquiry found Brent social services was “seriously defective”.
It also found that Haringey social services was “virtually paralysed” by mismanagement.
Victoria’s parents travelled to London afterwards and spent years campaigning for reform.
In disturbingly similar circumstances, Urfan Sharif and his wife Beinash Batool murdered ten-year-old Sara in 2023 at the family home in Woking, Surrey, with authorities repeatedly failing to intervene.
Following a legal battle, the three judges who oversaw the Family Court hearings involving Sara in the years before she was murdered were named as Judge Alison Raeside, Judge Peter Nathan and Judge Sally Williams.
In an exclusive interview, animation worker Jacques, 42, said: “I heard about the Sara Sharif case and it brought back so much pain.
“Children like Sara should be protected by social services, but there seems to be so much negligence. Reading about her case caused all the bad memories to return and it makes you wonder why no one intervened. It’s shocking that something like this is allowed to happen in the UK.”
Tuesday marks 25 years since Victoria died in the intensive care unit at St Mary’s Hospital in London suffering from hypothermia, organ failure and malnutrition.
Dad-of-three Jacques will spend the day sitting in quiet contemplation at his home in Abidjan, the largest city in French-speaking Ivory Coast, West Africa.
Burned and scalded
He still celebrates Victoria’s birthday every year and tears well in his eyes as he recalls playing with her when she was a little girl.
He said: “We were very close as she was my youngest sister at the time and I felt very protective towards her. She was a bright girl, always smiling and happy.
“We were two of nine children. We didn’t have much money, but there was much joy in our house. Victoria loved to sing. She had a beautiful voice and I have so many happy memories.”
Francis and Berthe Climbie dreamed of a better life for their children away from the poverty of the Ivory Coast, which was then on the brink of civil war.
Kouao, a relative they barely knew, offered to take Victoria to Europe to receive an education.
But the great-aunt cynically used her niece to claim child benefits, first in France in 1998 and then in Ealing, West London, where they moved in April 1999 before relocating to Harlesden, North London.
Kouao, now 68, brought Victoria along with her as she made benefits claims, and officials noticed the youngster was small, frail, unkempt and wearing a wig due to a severe skin condition.
The abuse escalated from July 1999, when the great-aunt moved into the one-bedroom flat of her new bus driver boyfriend Manning, who lived in Tottenham.
Victoria was taken to hospital twice that month, where she was treated for injuries.
Doctors were told she was so scared of Kouao’s rages that she would wet herself.
But the police and social services still refused to get involved, even when sexual abuse allegations were made against Manning, now 52.
A court later heard the couple had scalded and starved Victoria, burned her with cigarettes, tied her up for over 24 hours and beat her.
The youngster was forced to sleep in a bin liner in the bathtub and she was taken to churches where pastors said she was possessed.
It was only when a minicab driver collecting Victoria from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God insisted on taking her to the nearby Tottenham Ambulance Station that Victoria finally got help — and by then it was too late.
Her parents did not find out that she had died until a month later.
‘Tore our family apart’
In 2003, Victoria’s mum Francis described the £3.8million public inquiry — the most expensive child protection investigation in UK history — as a “great victory”.
Lord Laming’s 400-page report made 108 recommendations for reform.
But more than two decades later, Sara Sharif’s case has once again exposed the incompetency of our child protection system.
From 2019, when her father was awarded custody, the schoolgirl was subjected to regular beatings.
She was tied up with tape and her head covered with a “makeshift hood”. Teachers noticed she was wearing a hijab to cover her bruises while neighbours reported hearing screaming coming from the house.
Sara’s body was discovered by police at the family residence in Woking in the early hours of August 10, 2023.
Her father Urfan, 43, and stepmother Batool, 30, had already flown to Pakistan, with his brother Faisal Malik and his five other children.
The three adults were charged with murder when they returned to Gatwick Airport in September 2023.
Last year, the Old Bailey heard Sara had suffered more than 70 injuries, including to her ribs, shoulder blades and fingers, and a traumatic brain injury.
On December 11, 2024, Urfan and Batool were found guilty of murdering Sara, and Malik was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The father and stepmother were given life, just like Kouao and Manning, while Malik was handed a 16-year sentence.
Jacques reveals his dad died from a stress-related illness in 2010 and his mum passed shortly afterwards in 2013. Both were in their 50s.
His brother Augustin, who later travelled to London with his sister Joelle, died in 2015 aged 22 in an accident in Mali, where he was studying. Joelle is now 26 and working as an intern.
Jacques says Kouao initially wanted him to travel back with her, but then changed her mind, explaining at 15 he was too old.
He said: “When Victoria left for Europe, we were all happy. We hoped she would become a doctor or lawyer. There was no contact after that until, one day, we learned she had died. It was really difficult then. Victoria’s death tore our family apart. My parents never came to terms with their loss.
“They wanted to fight to protect other children, but every time Victoria’s birthday came around, they would cry so much.”
