THE opinion of three courts, plus the court of public opinion, is clear – the father of 13-month-old Poppi Worthington should face justice for what happened the night she died.
An inquest found Paul Worthington sexually assaulted her before she suffocated to death.
But five and a half years on, he remains free, thanks partly to a bungled police investigation that failed to recover his laptop after he passed it to a neighbour — and the officers who led the inquiry are now on gold-plated pensions.
The laptop’s loss meant Worthington’s claim he was watching legal, adult porn that night could not be verified. But that may now change after police traced the computer — with IT experts checking its hard drive for clues.
It could help establish what happened on the night of Poppi’s death and may finally end a legal stalemate that has seen a High Court judge, coroner and Poppi’s mum accusing Worthington of a terrible crime — and the Crown Prosecution Service insisting there is not enough evidence to charge him.
Worthington is now in hiding, after insisting he is the innocent victim of a witch-hunt that has ruined his life. The saga began on a cold, dark morning in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in December 2012, when Poppi screamed out in pain so loudly that it woke others in the cramped, three-bed house.
Coroner David Roberts ruled at an inquest in January this year that she screamed because her dad had subjected her to a sickening sexual attack. Worthington says he was watching porn in bed prior to Poppi’s screams but inisists it was legal, adult material.
Poppi’s mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sleeping on the sofa downstairs, comforting another child who was unwell. After hearing the screams and her partner walking around, she assumed he was tending to Poppi, then drifted back to sleep.
But a few hours later Worthington came running downstairs with Poppi in his arms, yelling: “She’s not breathing.” The mum rang 999 and an ambulance came at 6.05am. She was rushed to hospital, arriving at 6.11am.
Ten medics then worked on her for 57 minutes but without success — and coroner Mr Roberts later ruled she had been dead before paramedics arrived at the house. When Worthington had tried to settle her in the marital bed after the alleged assault, she had been put in an unsafe sleep position, causing her to suffocate.
Cumbria Police were also alerted and two constables got to the house just before the ambulance left — it was the start of a woeful investigation later criticised as “not fit for purpose”.
It led to an independent inquiry concluding that two officers, Detective Superintendent Mike Forrester and Detective Inspector Amanda Sadler, had cases to answer for gross misconduct.
Initially, only the bedroom where Poppi was allegedly abused was sealed, so potential evidence elsewhere could have been interfered with. The house was not cleared and sealed until 7.50am — nearly two hours after Poppi had been taken to hospital, during which time numerous relatives had tramped through.
The “golden hour” — the most critical time in any police investigation where vital material can be seized — was lost. Mobile phones, Poppi’s Peppa Pig pyjama bottoms and, crucially, the laptop on which Worthington had watched porn were never recovered.
Even the blood-stained sheets from the ambulance were not preserved for tests and Poppi’s last nappy was never found. No senior officer went to the house at this early stage and Sadler, whose work was criticised by junior officers as “hands off”, later admitted she thought it had been sealed when it had not.
A report by watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) stated: “It is difficult to understand why the two most senior officers were both at the hospital, leaving comparatively inexperienced officers at the scene alone.”
There were suspicions surrounding Worthington from the start, and he was asked to provide a sample from an intimate swab on the day Poppi died — but only hours later, when he would have had time to wash.
The parents’ accounts contradicted each other — the mum said Poppi had diarrhoea, the dad that she had been constipated. Poppi was also discovered to have suffered a broken leg a few weeks earlier, which had not been treated. Yet despite the alarm bells, Worthington was not arrested at the time.
At the post-mortem, two doctors could not agree if Poppi’s injuries were caused by abuse or constipation. But incredibly Sadler, 51, never asked a single question to try to clarify this. She told Poppi’s inquest: “I hadn’t been trained in dealing with child deaths. I had responsibility for the investigation but wasn’t the senior investigating officer. That was DS Forrester.”
Forrester still denies he did anything wrong. But he didn’t bother sending key samples for analysis for eight months, saying he did not want to spend £20,000 on tests that may not have produced anything positive.
He dismissed early claims of a medical expert that Poppi had been the victim of an unlawful act and later justified it by saying: “Doesn’t mean to say I’ve got to accept what she says, does it?”
By the time Worthington was arrested, in August 2013, any chance of finding evidence to convict was gone and the case was dropped.Prosecutors have reviewed the case three times and each time have found there was no realistic prospect of a conviction. But there is now a glimmer of hope after the laptop was found.
Cumbria Police confirmed: “During the course of their inquiries officers have recovered a laptop. It is subject to forensic examination.” But where it has been for the last five and a half years remains a mystery.
Worthington claimed he gave it to neighbour Wayne Roebuck, who said he passed it to another acquaintance who later moved to Birmingham. Police have not revealed where it was found but will be checking its internet history to see which porn sites Worthington visited on the night.
They will also check for messages he may have sent and any other online searches that evening. Roebuck was held earlier this year on suspicion of assisting an offender. It is understood that, before being released pending inquiries, he was quizzed over claims Worthington asked him to get rid of the computer.
The IPCC report concluded Forrester and Sadler had gross misconduct cases to answer. But Forrester was allowed to retire before any further action, on an estimated £46,000-a-year pension. Sadler faced a disciplinary hearing where gross incompetency was proven, but she kept her job. She was demoted but has since also retired, on a pension thought to be up to £30,000 a year. Both have declined requests for comment.
Cumbria’s Chief Constable Jerry Graham admits: “The initial investigation fell well short of the standard that could and indeed should have been expected.” In a statement read by her solicitors after January’s inquest, Poppi’s mother described the five years since Poppi’s death as a “complete nightmare”. She was “disappointed” Worthington refused to give evidence and “considers he should have given the coroner the crucial evidence on Poppi’s last hours”.
Coroner Mr Roberts said Worthington’s version of events did not “stand up to scrutiny” and he believed Worthington had sexually assaulted Poppi, only stopping when she cried out in pain. Mr Roberts ruled Poppi died of suffocation after being placed in an unsafe sleep position. The alleged abuse by her dad did not cause her death.
Worthington grew up with single mum Iris, 73, and sister Tracy, 48, in a Barrow terrace and, as an adult, is remembered as nervy, with few friends, an obsessive gambler who would bet on anything, “even two flies climbing a wall”. At one stage he moved away from Barrow but hit hard times and ended up sleeping on the streets.
When he met Poppi’s mum, he had kids with two other women but they fell for each other despite an age gap of around 20 years — and were living together by 2010
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In September 2012 the couple, who never wed, decided to make a fresh go of it. He quit his job at a local Tesco and they were planning to move to Kent — but Poppi’s death put an end to that.
Worthington now lives a drifter’s life, constantly on the move for fear of a vigilante attack against him. He spent two days in the witness box at Poppi’s inquest but refused to answer 252 questions about her death, using his rights against self-incrimination.
But the laptop find may now mean police do not need him to incriminate himself to finally gather evidence to deliver justice for Poppi.
Diary of police inaction
2008: Poppi’s parents meet.
2010: They move in together.
November 2011: Poppi is born
December 2012: She dies aged 13 months, at home.
February 2013: Poppi is buried.
June 2013: Postmortem finds cause of death unclear.
August 2013: Poppi’s dad Worthington arrested and quizzed on suspicion of sexual assault.
March 2014: Fact-finding judgment on Poppi’s death is delivered in private family court. Publication is delayed in case it prejudices any criminal trial.
October 2014: Coroner Ian Smith (now retired) takes seven minutes to declare Poppi’s death as unexplained.
January 2015: Coroner David Roberts says he will ask for fresh inquest.
March 2015: Police announce no charges will be brought.
July 2015: High Court judges order fresh inquest after first hearing is deemed “irregular”.
November 2015: Review of medical evidence from 2014 court proceedings. Before the hearing, Mr Justice Peter Jackson releases parts of his original fact-finding judgment – that police did not do any “real”
investigation for nine months.
January 2016: Justice Jackson releases ruling that Poppi was sexually assaulted by dad.
July 2016: CPS says there is “insufficient evidence” to charge Worthington with any offence. Cumbria Police “deeply regrets” how investigation was handled.
November 2016: CPS stands by its decision not to charge Worthington, after independent review of evidence.
March 2017: Police watchdog calls probe into Poppi’s death “disorganised” and finds there were grounds for an arrest on the day of Poppi’s death.
November 2017: Second inquest starts.
November 2017: Worthington gives evidence in public for first time, hidden by a screen, and refuses to answer more than 250 questions, citing his right to silence. Poppi’s mum walks out
in tears.
January 2018: Prosecutor Nazir Afzal blasts cops’ failures and says case file had so many gaps he could not approve charging Worthington.
January 2018: Coroner David Roberts rules Poppi was sexually abused before death. Police apologise again. Cumbria Chief Constable Jerry Graham says he and CPS will discuss “possible
courses of action”.
March 2018: The CPS says there will be no further review of the case, due to lack of evidence.
March 2018: Police say they arrested the neighbour who Worthington gave the laptop to on suspicion of assisting an offender. He is released under investigation.
July 2018: Police reveal they have found the laptop.
Background to death of 13-month-old girl Poppi Worthington at family home in Barrow-in-Furness in 2012ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKynZpOke7a3jqecsKtfa4V0fZBybWion6e7brjAqauoqF2Xv6q6xmahrquknrCmec%2Bop6mhXw%3D%3D