The Welney Website Lauren Wright - After her death the anger, the guilt, the questions, the trial, the enquiries. |
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Shortly after Lauren's death in May 2000, Mrs Sylvia Kent, a neighbour of the Wrights, saw the couple in a local pub. She said Craig looked subdued but Tracey "sat laughing and joking, I just couldn't believe it".
Subsequently Lauren's father and stepmother were charged with her death, and in October 2001 after a four week trial at Norwich Crown Court, Tracey Wright (on left), then 31, was found guilty of wilful neglect and manslaughter and given a 15 year jail sentence by Judge David Millar; 10 years for manslaughter and five years for cruelty, to run consecutively. Craig Wright (on right), then 38, was also found guilty of manslaughter, though there was no evidence that he beat his daughter, and was given a 3 year sentence. The Judge said Lauren Wright was brutally killed after being "let down by every single agency responsible for protecting her" in the months before her death and Craig Wright ignored his daughter's suffering while spending his time drinking in pubs and cultivating an image of an all-round "good bloke" and turning a blind eye to his wife's spiteful abuse and mistreatment of Lauren. Norfolk Social Services admitted that "errors had been made" and there had been a misreading of the situation. Their Director David Wright, said they were misled by the paediatrician who had seen Lauren in March 2000. A bigger mistake was when, after a further inquiry, they failed to visit Lauren immediately. The senior social worker responsible for the fatal misjudgement later resigned and was said to be suicidal. After the trial, the parish newsletter, "Welney News" published three items about the tragedy: Richard Green wrote
The non-staff Governors at Lauren's school issued a statement and Holly Goodwin summed up her feelings in a letter and poem. Norfolk Social Services inquiry
Mrs Gillian Shephard, MP, asked for a public inquiry in a question to Hazel Blears at Westminster hall on 16th Oct 2001.
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