The grandmother of a 20-month-old child who died after being left home alone for six days said today that there should have been more support for the tot.
Asia Batrane spoke out after a five-day inquest into the death of Asiah Kudi, known to her family as Naveah.
Miss Batrane said: “We, as the family of Asiah Naveah Kudi, have had so many unanswered questions about the circumstances leading up to her passing.
“In our view, attempts made to answer our questions proved to be futile.
“We are disappointed that we did not hear evidence from the staff who were supposed to do increased CCTV checks after safeguarding concerns were raised about Naveah’s care in October 2019.
“We believe that there should have been more support for Naveah.
“Naveah was the light of our lives. She was adored by all of us, her grandfather and her aunties, who loved her more than anything.
“Going forward, we would request for our privacy to be respected while we figure out what our next steps in finding out the answers to our questions will be.”
Asiah Kudi’s grandparents were represented at the five-day inquest by solicitor Daniel Cooper, and Emma Gilbert, trainee solicitor, of Imran Khan and Partners, and barrister Jamie Burton, of Doughty Street Chambers.
The inquest examined the death of 20-month-old Asiah and concluded at Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court, sitting at the Sussex University campus, in Falmer, this afternoon (Wednesday 21 June).
The inquest was told that Asia died on or around Wednesday 11 December 2019 from flu, lung infection and starvation.
The tot had been left alone for six days in her mother’s flat at Gochers Court, in Islingword Road, Brighton.
Verphy and Asiah Kudi lived in supported housing run by the YMCA DownsLink Group whose services were commissioned and paid for by Brighton and Hove City Council.
YMCA DownsLink provided low to medium support to young families and the inquest was told that Verphy Kudi required low support. The council paid for her tenancy because she was under 18.
In the two months before Asiah’s death, the inquest was told that Verphy Kudi had left her daughter alone in their flat up to six times for durations of between an hour to two days and five hours.
Kudi was required to stay at Gochers Court four nights a week and engage in weekly sessions with a key worker as part of her tenancy agreement.
The coroner was told that Verphy attended only four out of 11 sessions with her key worker during her tenancy.
The coroner said: “Although it was suspected that Asiah’s mother was not always residing in the accommodation, the numerous professionals who were involved were not aware that she had been leaving her child alone for long periods.”
The inquest also heard evidence today from Edi Carmi, the author of a safeguarding report commissioned by Brighton and Hove Safeguarding Children’s Partnership after Asiah’s death.
She said: “Not enough digging was done or triangulating (Verphy’s) stories as to where she was going and what she was doing. But also you’ve got this belief that it was being done elsewhere.”
The coroner found that there had been no obligation for the professionals to have done so.
Ms Carmi said that, from the time Asiah stopped going to nursery in late 2018, it felt “like she was out of sight” of professionals.
The inquest was also told that she was removed from the books of a GP surgery without being registered with another.
The grandparents said that it had pained them to hear that Asiah appeared to have been overlooked in this way.
In her conclusion, though, the coroner found that it was unlikely that family or professionals could have prevented Asiah’s death.
The grandparents’ solicitors, Emma Gilbert and Daniel Cooper, said: “It was Naveah’s grandparents’ aim in this Inquest to be a voice for their granddaughter and to understand how, despite the extensive network surrounding her mother, nobody picked up the very many episodes where she was left alone in the two months before her death.
“It is unfortunately clear from the complete lack of risk assessments done in relation to Naveah in the final year of her life and the absence of knowledge of her true whereabouts while she was living at Gochers Court, that there was little professional curiosity about Naveah’s lived experience.
“The measures that both Brighton and Hove City Council and YMCA DownsLink have put in place since Naveah’s death show that there were a series of gaps in the safeguarding of children who are dependents of a vulnerable child under 18 that needed to be filled.
“We can only hope that these measures will put children like Naveah in the forefront of professional minds working with vulnerable young parents going forward.”
I am always massively saddened whenever I hear a story like this, a story on how multiple agencies failed to involve themselves enough to protect the life of someone who can’t look after themselves. I hope this galvanises our new council to do better than the old one.