Police probe new Haringey child abuse allegations

THE London council that failed to protect Baby P is at the centre of another abuse scandal after claims a five-year-old boy was beaten while in its care, it emerged today.

Police are investigating allegations of serious abuse against a victim known as "Child C" while he was in the care of Haringey council.

The child was snatched from his home in Africa and handed to a follower of self-styled archbishop Gilbert Deya, who has been at the centre of investigations into a "miracle baby" child-trafficking scandal, with infants allegedly stolen and passed to infertile women who were then convinced they had conceived through prayer.

Once in the UK, the follower adopted the five-year-old, but he was seized by police in 2003 and taken into care where he has passed through six different sets of carers.

The authorities were alerted when concerns were raised by a consultant child psychiatrist after the boy was taken to hospital.

Police were called in after now-suspended Sharon Shoesmith, director of Haringey's children's services, was handed a dossier of evidence claiming the youngster was being abused.

Haringey council has been slammed for its failure to protect Baby P, who died despite 50 visits from social workers and other agencies.

Meanwhile, councils are being deterred from taking abused children into care by soaring family court fees, Britain's leading QC claims.

Desmond Browne, the new chairman of the Bar Council, said that the Baby P case had exposed how town halls were put off by the court costs of intervening to protect youngsters.

Browne said that this year court fees in some child cases had risen from £150 to £5,000 as Justice Secretary Jack Straw slashed family legal aid.