Harper Denton death: Father Kevin Eves risk of reoffending not shared

Kevin Eves who had a previous conviction for violence against children was jailed for life for murdering his eight-week old daughter in November 2019

A convicted child killer's risk to reoffend was not shared with relevant agencies, an inquest has heard.

Kevin Eves, of Wixams, near Bedford, smothered his baby, Harper Denton and left her with numerous fractures, including one to her skull, in 2018.

The 37-year-old was also jailed in 2006 for assaulting a toddler in his care, when he went by the surname of Forbes.

The Bedford inquest has been looking at the medical cause of his eight-week-old daughter's death.

It was also examining whether there had been any state failures to protect Harper, and whether any state agency could have been able to protect the Denton family from becoming involved with Eves.

Eves had said in his trial that he had been upfront about his previous 2006 conviction to Harper's mother

During the first day of the inquest, Bedford and Luton Coroner's Court heard about the work of multi-agency teams dealing with child protection, probation and domestic abuse.

Two police detectives were asked about their involvement with three agencies, MAPPA - which focusses on the management of violent and sexual offenders, MASH - whose remit is centred on child protection issues, and MARAC which deals with high risk domestic abuse cases and offenders.

Det Con Rebecca Normington, a specialist in domestic violence, was part of the Croydon MARAC multi-agency team in January 2015.

Nick Armstrong, legal representative for Harper's mother, Cherinea Denton, quizzed the detective constable on whether she was guided to refer MARAC information to MASH and MAPPA.

She replied she had not been trained to do so, but that "experience tells you to do this".

Mr Armstrong suggested to the inquest that with three different agencies, it could have been possible "a ball-dropping risk", was created after hearing information and action were not always recorded as having been undertaken or passed between the organisations.

The court heard how MARAC had been informed of Eves' previous relationship with a woman, G, in December 2014, in which he was allegedly violent, had threatened to kill her, and had raped her twice weekly.

The inquest was told there was no record of whether police had tasked anyone with following up with the woman as to whether she had sought or declined further police involvement, despite having on record that she wanted some support.

The co-chairman of Croydon MARAC at the time, Det Insp Fitzpatrick, told the inquest "he assumed" she had not wanted any further police involvement, but agreed records should have been kept to confirm this.

The inquest was told it was also not clear how tasks for Croydon MARAC team members were allocated.

At a MARAC meeting on 8 January 2015, the team agreed to carry out further checks on Eves, with a view to deciding if a domestic violence disclosure order ought to be shared.

The inquest was told no one was allocated this task and the checks were not carried out.

Mr Armstrong said, instead, "it slipped away".

He added: "It looks like a pretty significant failing doesn't it?"

The detective said G had already known about Eves' previous offending and that she had already separated from him.

Mr Armstrong asked the detective if the team should not have considered any harm to future potential victims.

He was told by the detective this depended on the context and information available at the time.

Domestic violence protection orders and notices were rolled out across all 43 police forces in England and Wales in March 2014 urging forces to share information "in the immediate aftermath of a domestic violence incident".

More witnesses are expected to be called over a further four days of the inquest hearing.