POLICE are investigating the death of a 17-month-old boy who died of horrific injuries while reportedly being monitored by social services.

The child was taken into hospital by his mother and died an hour later. His injuries are said to have included a broken spine, fractured ribs and at least two missing fingernails.

After the boy died on August 3, staff at North Middlesex hospital in north London alerted police who then arrived there and arrested his 25-year-old mother, who lives in Tottenham. A 31-year-old, believed to be her boyfriend, was also arrested. Both were released on police bail.

The social services department in Haringey, in whose area the boy lived, is the same one that was heavily criticised for failing to save the life of Victoria Climbié, the eight-year-old who died in 2000.

Victoria was starved to death, despite in theory being under council protection, by her great aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning, who were both jailed for life.

A spokesman for Haringey council would not confirm last night whether the child who died on Friday was on the at-risk register, but said: “We can confirm that an independent multi-agency serious case review has been commissioned by the local safeguarding children board, as is routine in circumstances like this.”

Further tests are being carried out on the boy after a postmortem at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital last Monday proved inconclusive.

Details of the case only emerged yesterday, but the Metropolitan police declined to release the names of the family. A spokesman said the death was “suspicious”.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We are investigating the death of a 17-month-old boy brought into North Middlesex hospital on the morning of August 3.

“Two people have been arrested and the death is being treated as suspicious. Officers from the Child Abuse Investigation Command are investigating.”

The whole system for looking after children at risk of abuse was overhauled following Lord Laming’s 2003 damning report into Victoria’s death. The young girl spent her last months in a bath, tied up and gagged inside a bag. Social services had formally closed her case on the same day she died, stating “no further action needed”. She was found to have 128 injuries.

Lisa Arthurworrey, her social worker, was cleared of neglect after the court heard she was overworked.

The death of the 17-month-old boy comes just two days after social workers in West Yorkshire were criticised for failing to save four-year-old Leticia Wright.

She was found lying battered, burned, naked and close to death on her living room floor a month after a visit by social workers.

Paramedics and hospital staff tried to save her, but she died the following day from more than 100 injuries.

Detectives believe Leticia’s mother, Sharon Wright, 23, took turns with her boyfriend, Peter McKenzie-Seaton, 22, to inflict what the court was told was “unimaginable pain” on the girl. Both were jailed for life last Friday.

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