Marie‑Thérèse Kouao was born on July 17, 1956, in Bonoua, Côte d’Ivoire. She came from a modest background and later settled in France with her three children. Divorced in 1978 and widowed in 1995, Kouao lived off state benefits and child support. In 1998, she traveled back to the Ivory Coast for a family funeral and proposed to the Climbié family that she would take one of their daughters, Victoria, to Europe, offering a better life and access to quality education. The Climbiés, hoping for a brighter future for Victoria, agreed. At the time, informal fostering across borders was common in many African communities.

In November 1998, Kouao arrived in Paris with Victoria, using a false French passport listing the girl as "Anna Kouao". The child quickly became a pawn for obtaining benefits. By December 1998, Kouao was already receiving warnings about Victoria’s absences from school, and social services were involved. In April 1999, they arrived in London, England, where Kouao presented herself as Victoria’s mother, referring to her as "Anna". Kouao soon became involved with Carl Manning, a bus driver, and Victoria became increasingly isolated and mistreated. What started as cruelty soon escalated into a campaign of terror that would lead to Victoria’s death.

The abuse suffered by Victoria Climbié was one of the worst cases of child cruelty ever recorded in the United Kingdom. After arriving in London in April 1999, Victoria and Kouao settled in the area of Ealing and later moved in with Carl Manning in Tottenham. At first, Victoria appeared to be an ordinary girl, but soon warning signs of abuse surfaced. Social services, medical professionals, and authorities came into contact with Victoria multiple times between 1999 and 2000, yet failed to intervene effectively.

Kouao and Manning subjected Victoria to horrific abuse. The girl was repeatedly beaten with shoes, belt buckles, and other objects. They starved her, scalded her with hot water, and kept her bound in a plastic bin liner, forced to lie in her own waste. Victoria was also forced to eat like a dog from a bowl and was often thrown scraps of food and forced to catch them in her mouth. Medical staff observed her injuries at various times — burns, scars, and signs of malnutrition — but missed opportunities for intervention due to miscommunication and complacency between departments.

On February 24, 2000, Victoria was found unconscious and hypothermic, with her body covered in wounds. An ambulance took her to North Middlesex Hospital, and she was later transferred to St. Mary's Hospital, where she died on February 25, 2000, at just 8 years old. A post‑mortem examination revealed 128 separate injuries across her body. The pathologist called it “the worst case of child abuse” he had ever seen.

Both Kouao and Manning were arrested immediately. Kouao claimed Victoria had been possessed by demons and refused to accept guilt, often responding angrily and inconsistently in court proceedings. At trial, she offered no credible explanation for Victoria’s death. Manning, however, admitted that he beat Victoria and treated her like an object. The court convicted both of murder and child cruelty, and on January 12, 2001, they were both sentenced to life imprisonment.

The death of Victoria Climbié shook the United Kingdom. An extensive public inquiry, led by Lord Laming, exposed systemic failures across social services, police, medical institutions, and charities. The inquiry revealed numerous instances where Victoria could have been saved and criticized the “blinding incompetence” of the authorities. The findings became the foundation for sweeping child protection reforms across the UK, including the establishment of the Every Child Matters initiative, the role of the Children’s Commissioner, and the introduction of the Children Act 2004.