Lauren Victoria Wright

In a small churchyard at South Mimms a small grave marks the spot where a six- year-old girl is laid
to rest. With its plain wooden cross, a small toy Piglet distinguishes it as the grave of a child
among the other ornate, ivy-covered, stone memorials. The carefully tended plot stands in horrific
contrast to the short, brutal life that ended at the hands of an abusive stepmother and father.

Lauren Victoria Wright was born on 16 July 1993, at the QE2 Hospital in Welwyn Garden City,
Hertfordshire and died on the 6th May 2000 at her home in Welney, Norfolk.

Lauren’s parents, Craig Wright and Jennifer Bennett, had separated prior to her birth. After the
arrival of Lauren her father,Wright, demanded a blood test to prove that she was in fact his
daughter. Lauren became a pawn in her parents' volatile relationship. During their frequent
separations, Ms Bennett would telephone Wright and threaten to hit Lauren unless he came to visit.
As she grew up, Lauren was often left alone at the unheated garage workshop where Wright worked, or
literally dumped at the local pub. The "delightful, chatty little girl" became an object of pity and
charity. But amid Laurens bleakness there was some light. On occasions Wright would take his
daughter to visit her grandmother, Christine, and her aunts Dawn and Vicky, at the Red Hart pub they
ran in Three Holes, Norfolk. It was after one such outing, shortly before Lauren's fourth
birthday, that a fateful telephone conversation took place.

Lauren called her mother she said "Hello Mummy. Do you still love me?”

Bennett replied “No, I hate you.”

“The look on that child's face was enough to make your heart break. She sobbed her heart out."
Recalled Dawn Wright, Lauren’s aunt.

Lauren never went home to live with her natural mother.

Hertfordshire Social Services placed her on a child protection register between July 1997 and
January 1998 and a custody battle ended with her grandmother being granted a full residency order
for her in January 1998. But the pub failed by May 1998 and with it Lauren's brief happiness as she
rejoined her father. Wright had since moved to Welney in Norfolk from Potters Bar. His mother and
younger sister, Vicky, were also rehoused in the village. Next door lived Tracey Scarff - a brash,
abrasive, single mother- of- two with an unenviable local reputation. She eventually formed a
relationship with a "besotted" Wright.

Lauren continued to see her mother, and in May 1999, set off for a holiday in Turkey with Ms
Bennett, her boyfriend of the time, and three of their children. The holiday was to turn into a
nightmare as Bennett continued to vent her fury on Lauren, eventually dumping her at the British
consulate before scratching her photograph from her passport. Bewildered Lauren was met at Gatwick
airport by family members, her mother who was on the same flight never said goodbye.

Within a couple of months of Craig Wright and Tracey Scarff moving in together they annouced their
engagement, Lauren was their bridesmaid, within a year of the wedding Lauren was dead.

The abuse at the hands of Tracey Wright had started some months earlier and as the terror escalated,
Lauren became a familiar bedraggled figure, walking 10 feet behind Wright and her own son and
daughter, carrying the other children's bags, soaked in the rain while they gathered under an
umbrella. Lauren was forced to eat pepper sandwiches or insects, made to stand in front of burning
fires and beaten for wetting her bed. She was ignored as Tracey Wright bought her own children
sweets and presents. The moment the children returned from school, Lauren was sent to bed. At home,
her stepmother encouraged the other children to pick on their quieter stepsister.

Lauren began to lose weight, her hair started falling out. On hot days she boiled in shabby,
oversized clothes large enough to cover her bruises. Either too scared or too in awe of the woman
she called "Mum", Lauren mimicked her stepmother's endless stream of explanations for the injuries,
even when she was seen by a string of doctors and social workers.

On 15 March 2000, she was seen by a consultant paediatrician, Dr Jonathan Dossetor, at the request
of social workers but he agreed with the litany of excuses used for her injuries by her stepmother.
Over the months, teachers, four different doctors and two social workers saw the injuries to Lauren
but insufficient action was taken to protect her.

Lauren was used to beatings but when Tracey Wright punched her viciously in the stomach in early
May, part of her digestive system collapsed. She suffered days of agony and vomiting during which
her stepmother refused to take her to the doctor. Relatives accepted her excuses that a wardrobe had
fallen on her and that she had gastroenteritis. On the Thursday night before his child died, Wright
saw Lauren briefly in the bathroom. By now in intense pain, she simply asked for a glass of water.
On Saturday morning, Tracey Wright's young son saw her punch Lauren twice in the stomach.
At lunchtime, the stepmother came "crashing" into Lauren's grandmother's kitchen next door.
Christine, Dawn and Vicky returned to find Lauren's body on the bottom bunk of her bedroom, one arm
stiffly outstretched, foul smelling liquid pouring from her nose and mouth. Tracey Wright remained
downstairs, hysterically screaming, while Vicky went to get Wright from the pub. Dawn and her mother
tried to follow the ambulance operator's instructions, attempting to breathe air into the blocked
airways. As they lifted her shirt to start compressions, they noted bruising. By the time the
ambulance arrived, rigor mortis had begun to set in.

The paramedic looked at the father, grandmother and aunt and said simply: "I am so sorry ..." Lauren
Victoria Wright was dead.

That night her parents went to the pub.

At the time of Lauren’s death she had more than 60 bruises on her emaciated body.
Medical experts advised that the injuries sustained by Lauren were like those suffered by somebody
who had been involved in a serious car accident.

Tracey Wright's treatment of little Lauren was described as "very near the top of the scale of
inhumanity" by one of the police officers who led the investigation. Lauren Wright was brutally
killed after being let down by every single agency responsible for protecting her in the months
before her death.

Two witnesses, one a trained social worker, described Lauren as looking "like an advert for the
NSPCC" in the weeks leading to her death, while others told the court she looked like a "ragamuffin"
and a "waif".

One neighbour watched as Tracey shouted obscenities at Lauren in the street, punching her in the
head and walking off, leaving the little girl a crumpled heap on the ground and only to get up on
feet with silent tears and run after her step-mother.

Tracey Wright (31) and Craig Wright (38) were both convicted of wilful neglect and manslaughter
following a four week trial at Norwich Crown Court.

Tracey Wright was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Tracey Wright would be eligible for parole after
saving half of the 15 year term; Tracey Wright may well now be a free woman walking the streets.

Craig Wright was sentenced to 3 year jail terms for each of his convictions, the terms to run
concurrently. Craig Wright could be be released on parole after serving half of the three year
term. Craig Wright is now a free man.

Social services, plus education and health authority officials admitted that serious mistakes were
made in the way Lauren was cared for. One social services manager (David Wright) resigned as a
result of her death.