22/02/2017 Midlands Today

An 18-month-old girl, battered to death by her guardian,

"should never have been placed" with the woman Birmingham City

That's according to a Serious Case Review carried out

Keegan Downer was killed by Kandyce Downer less than a year

after she was appointed her legal guardian.

A postmortem examination found she had more than 150 internal

and external injuries when she died in September 2015.

Today the review was published into the role the local authority

Little Keegan - born Shianne - seen here happy and flourishing

But that all changed when she went to live with Kandyce Downer,

a distant relative who had been awarded a Special Guardianship Order

Just nine months later, she was dead.

A serious case review into the toddler's death has

found she was failed by a number of agencies.

For example, a health visitor only ever made one

visit, not long after Kandyce became her guardian.

Keegan did not have a flag or red code on her medical notes to say

she was effectively adopted, and was not seen by a GP

And there was no further contact made by Children's Social Care.

Well, that was one of our failings and we had no

expectations set out in policy either that we should do those

visits and that is part of what we've changed.

There does need to be ongoing support and indeed part of

our expectation needs to be that there is

a working relationship with placements.

that some very distant relationship means

you've got an automatic right to permanency

of the child without supervision.

The initial assessment of whether Kandyce Downer should

become a special guardian was carried out by an external

And the report says Downer was given too much power to control

With the benefit of hindsight, that was just

not good enough and that wouldn't happen now.

I think one of the other things that has changed and that

needs to be ensured by this case is that those universal services

that would be involving the GP, the

health visitor, will absolutely know and that this child is on a special

Greater awareness within the wider society is also something

that the children's charity, the NSPCC is calling for.

I think it is really important that changes have

happened, but of course just tragic in this case that it was too late

for this individual child, but changes

will need to happen for the

future. What is also really important

is that any member of the public also helps social services

and the police and comes forward with information.

Birmingham City Council says it's taken further steps

Has anyone been sacked over Keegan's death?

Employment action has been taken to the regulator,

and those people are no longer working with us.

So people have been sacked? Yes.

Birmingham Children's Services is to be taken over

Amy Cole, BBC Midlands Today, Birmingham.

Two men have been sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison

for sexually exploiting a teenager in Coventry.

24-year-old Martin Cantle and 26-year-old Thomas Entwistle

were sentenced to 11 years each after being found guilty

of controlling child prostitution and supplying controlled drugs.

The charges relate to a 17-year-old girl who was groomed

In a little over eight hours' time, the polls will open for the

It was triggered following the resignation of the Labour MP

Mr Hunt resigned to take up a new role at the Victoria

Polls open at seven o'clock tomorrow morning and close at ten at night.

And there's an election special on BBC Radio Stoke from two o'clock

on Friday morning with Tim Wedgwood, as the counting finishes

The clear up begins 110 fridges were dumped in this lane

Officers start work to remove them, and investigations are underway.

The clear up begins 110 fridges were dumped in this lane

The council says people should avoid unwittingly fuelling their business.

What we would say to people is don't put your fridges and freezers

out into the street for the metal collectors because this is

We would say either get the retailer to put them away put them

in your car and take them to the recycling or if you can't do

that have a bulky waste disposal from the council.

Birmingham City Council's being called out to fly-tipping

It's a problem that's affecting the whole of the Midlands.

despite a padlocked gate -

around 500 tonnes of waste was dumped almost a month ago

This is an ocean of devastation, I am appalled and I hate it.

I'm actually hating the fact that these people,

whoever has done this, right the way round down to our first

Back in Birmingham the City Council is appealing for anyone

with information to help solve this crime.

The fridges now will be forensically tested to try to find the culprits,

who could face an unlimited fine or a prison sentence

Budding actors 1,600 miles apart have been performing

It's all thanks to virtual reality, which one university in the Midlands

is using to run courses in two countries at the same time.

Kevin Reide's been finding out more.

Lauren and Jack are in Coventry, Niklas and Heli are in Finland,

and they're rehearsing Shakespeare together.

This virtual learning theatre is a joint project

and the university of Tampere in Finland,

It's been wonderful and our teachers can also

teach us and tell us the

information but cooperating with universities over

The university is using the latest video conferencing technology to

make this all happen, but instead of a laptop screen

it is on a large screen and that enables them to make the students

Here do you keep 100 nights and Squires.

And that means the students bond quickly

as realised whe this was tested last year.

On the very last day we turned it off, and I really felt

After a bit it just kind of feels natural.

You completely forget that there is this 1,000 mile gap.

The rehearsals will continue for the next few weeks but in March

the Coventry students will go to Finland and perform on stage

Kevin Reide, BBC Midlands Today, Coventry.

The comedian Sir Lenny Henry returned to his roots tonight

The sell out gig is one of just four being held around the country

The campaign has raised more than ?1 billion to help people

in the UK and across Africa over the last 30 years.

Sian Grzeszczyk caught up with him before he headed out on stage.

He's been making us last for decades,

and been instrumental in

raising vital funds to help people through comic relief.

But it's been a while since he's done stand-up to

a home crowd, so how does that feel being back in Birmingham?

It's a home crowd, really, so, you know, if you mess it

up here you sort of need to be branded man with a busted leg.

So it's going to be fun, it's fun, it's comic relief,

As the crowds poured into the glee club they

And I'm looking forward to seeing the female

Supported comic relief since it first started, and

It's a great opportunity to show some support for comic relief and

also yeah, fab to see Lenny Henry in such a small intimate...

And it's an exciting but daunting night for

local comedians performing alongside him too.

I've had a chat with him, very briefly, in the

dressing room, made a cup of tea in front of him,

nervous I might get it wrong but I didn't, so yeah, he's a

With more than a billion raised over the last

30 years, have had a sea of what has been achieved?

I think the billion was a huge achievement but I think

he returned to fund the return to jokes, the return to comedians

messing around and having anarchy on stage is what comic relief

started off with and we kind of gone back to

that and I can't wait for the night, it's going to be a hoot.

I'll leave you with the weather forecast with Rebecca.

Today was a miserable day. Plenty of cloud around, better brightness, but

this was the scene for most people, much of the day. Plenty of rain.

Still mild, but when to fight back tomorrow with it be prepared and the

weather warning in place from the Met office, strong winds expected,

and some heavy, wintry rain. Some rain to come through the overnight

period, 80 mile an hour gusts of wind. The dryer for the time being,

winds ramping up, though, by the morning. Temperatures starting today

on a mild night, between 8-10 Celsius, for long though storm Doris

tracks in from the west, those winds really picking up, strengthening as

we head through towards lunchtime car that is when we were likely see

the strongest gusts, but a wet and windy start to the day, showers

unpleasant, and very strong gusts of wind by the time we get to the

middle of the day, up to 80 miles an hour over the top of high ground,

but widely between 60 and 70. Temperatures starts to fall as it

will get cold as Doris clears through. More information in the

national forecast. Here is the output. Good night.