The suffocation of a nine-year-old girl by her mother in a Southend guest house was a "tragedy that could not have been foreseen," an independent inquiry revealed yesterday.

Mentally ill Anne Murrie suffocated her daughter Louise while the pair were staying at the guest house in Eastern Esplanade, in February 1994.

Southend police immediately launched a murder inquiry and the girl's 38-year-old mother from Caversham, Reading, was arrested the same day.

In October 1994, at Chelmsford Crown Court, Mrs Murrie pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her child through diminished responsibility.

The results of an independent inquiry have now been revealed.

In a statement it was ruled that the tragedy could not have been foreseen and that it is unlikely it could have been prevented.

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