Poppi Worthington: prosecutors consider coroner's ruling

Prosecutors are considering a coroner’s finding that Poppi Worthington was sexually assaulted in her father’s bed before her death.

David Roberts, senior coroner for Cumbria, concluded on Monday that on the balance of probabilities the 13-month-old toddler was abused by her father Paul – the third court judgment against him.

Roberts formally referred a copy of his findings to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Tuesday. The CPS said it had received Roberts’s decision and would review it along with Cumbria police.

A spokesman said: “We have received a copy of the coroner’s decision and will now consider this carefully in liaison with Cumbria constabulary.”

Poppi’s mother called for prosecutors to re-examine the case after Monday’s ruling, which mirrored two fact-finding judgments by a high court family judge in 2014 and 2016 that Paul Worthington abused his daughter shortly before her death in December 2012.

Roberts said the toddler suffocated as she slept next to her father in an “unsafe sleeping environment”, and he ruled out penetration as the cause of death.

Worthington has been investigated several times over Poppi’s death but has never been charged and maintains his innocence.

The CPS reviewed the evidence in 2016 and found there was no realistic prospect of a conviction after police failed to collect vital evidence.

The nappy Poppi was wearing, her pyjama bottoms and a pillow she slept with were never recovered, nor the sheet on Worthington’s bed.

The parents’ laptop and mobile phones were never examined and it was not until more than eight months after the death that police started investigating properly and arrested Worthington and Poppi’s mother.