Probe into care services before baby girl's death

A MAJOR investigation has been ordered by child protection services into the tragic death of a six-week-old baby girl who was brutally murdered by her mother's boyfriend.

The "significant case review" into the death of baby Alexis Matheson has been commissioned by the North East Scotland Child Protection Committee (NESCPC) after a High Court judge voiced concerns about the care the baby received at the hands of a GP practice in the days leading up to her murder.

Mark Simpson, 29, was sentenced to life imprisonment and told he would serve at least 20 years in prison last November after he was convicted of Alexis' murder following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.

At the conclusion of the trial, Lord Uist took the unusual step of publicly criticising the care she received at Woodside Medical Group in Aberdeen, saying he had "serious concerns" that her death could have been prevented.

The court was told that the baby had been subjected to a series of brutal attacks which had left Alexis with brain damage and broken ribs. She had sustained as many as 40 injuries over a number of weeks. But the baby had been prescribed three types of drugs by doctors over the phone without ever being examined in person, while signs of abuse were overlooked.

A spokeswoman for the NESCPC said: "The review will establish the facts about the individual and multi-agency contact with this child, establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the case about the way in which agencies work together and individually to safeguard children, and identify what those lessons are and to make recommendations as to how those lessons will be acted upon."

Alexis died on 10 December, 2007.