A woman and her boyfriend have been jailed for life in Britain for the murder of an eight-year-old girl who suffered "truly unimaginable" abuse and neglect at their hands.
Marie Therese Kouao, 44, the girl’s great aunt and Kouao’s boyfriend Carl Manning, 28, of Tottenham, north London, were today found guilty at the Old Bailey of the murder of Anna Climbie, who died of hypothermia and neglect.
She was tied up in a black plastic bag and made to sleep in a bath for months. She was beaten with a variety of weapons including a bicycle chain and wire coat hanger. The frail child began to stoop like an old woman, and slowly starved because she was fed left-over scraps "like a dog".
Judge Richard Hawkins said: "What Anna endured was truly unimaginable. She died at both your hands, a lonely drawn out death. I pass the only sentence I am entitled to pass, and that is life imprisonment."
He gave Kouao a 10 year concurrent sentence for child cruelty. Manning was given eight years for child cruelty to run concurrently.
The little girl died of hypothermia in February last year. She was malnourished and had 128 bruises on her body.
The girl died despite intervention from police child protection officers and social service workers from three London boroughs, and her admission to two hospitals.
PA