No "real" police investigation took place into the sudden and unexpected death of a 13-month-old girl for nine months, a High Court judge has revealed.
Senior detectives in Cumbria thought a pathologist "may have jumped to conclusions" when she raised suspicions about the death of Poppi Worthington in December 2012.
They decided not to investigate until the full post-mortem report was ready but it was not finished until the following summer, according to a fact-finding family court judgment which was released for the first time today.
By that time the body of the Barrow-in-Furness toddler had been released by the local coroner and she was buried in February 2013.