Councillors pay tribute to two children found dead at Stafford home amid murder investigation
County councillors have paid tribute to two children found dead at a house in Stafford.
A Stafford community leader has also called for more information on whether or not Staffordshire County Council could have taken any action to prevent the deaths of Meraj Ul Zahra, aged two, and three-year-old Abdul Momin Alfaateh.
The pair were both found unresponsive with injuries inside a house in Corporation Street at around 7.30am on Sunday. October 12.
Emergency services attended but the two children were pronounced dead at the scene.
Staffordshire Police said on Monday (October 13) that a 43-year-old woman from the Stafford area, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, has been detained under the Mental Health Act and is related to the children.
They added that the incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), as is routine following earlier police contact.
At Thursday’s Safeguarding and Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting (October 16) at Staffordshire County Council, Stafford councillor Ann Edgeller asked for those present to observe a minute’s silence in memory of the children.
The meeting was told that Councillor Edgeller had asked if there was anything the county council could have done to help avoid their deaths.
Committee secretary Helen Phillips said: “At this point we are not able to ask for any information on that because there are police investigations and other investigations ongoing.
"But once the appropriate reviews have taken place we will look to ask for information to understand better what happened and whether there was anything Staffordshire County Council could put in place in future to make sure such things don’t happen again.
“There will be a whole series of investigations and reviews as part of that. I will speak to colleagues in social care, but I am sure their response will be there is nothing we can share at this moment.
“It is very early on, so apart from expressing your sadness and shock at what happened, as you have done today, it needs to be on the work programme as something you will need to have more information on. As the safeguarding committee you will want to understand if there was anything that needed to be done from a local authority point of view.
“At the moment it is too early for any information to be shared. Until they have done the appropriate investigations they won’t know if there were gaps.”
