Alexia Awenimi WALENKAKI · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 28 July 2015, one of my assistant coroners, William Dolman, commenced an investigation into the death of Alexia Awenimi Walenkaki, aged nearly six years.

Following a lengthy police investigation, my investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 17 May 2018. My most sincere apologies to you and to Alexia’s family that I am only now making this report a month later.

The jury made a narrative determination, a copy of which I attach.

Alexia fell from a rope suspended from a wooden post that collapsed when she was playing in a children’s play area of Mile End Park on the afternoon of 17 July 2015.

Her medical cause of death was:
1a traumatic head injury

The jury identified two causative factors in the equipment failure that resulted in Alexia’s death:

- inadvertent use of inappropriate wood;
- organisational failure and lack of accountability for annual inspections.

When one person was suspended and another went on maternity leave, there was no clear handover of responsibility for annual inspections. I fear that a lack clarity and continuity in terms of role demarcation and management structure may persist, particularly when staff move on.

Whilst I heard that there have been changes at Tower Hamlets since Alexia’s death, I am concerned that there is the potential for recurrence of the organisational failure identified by the jury.