AMBER PEAT: ‘We want answers from council’ says family

Amber had lived with her mother and stepfather in Derbyshire before moving to Bosworth Street, Mansfield, in September of last year.

She went missing from her home at the end of May this year and was found hanging in bushes three days later less than a mile from her home.

Police maintain there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.

Chad reported last week that the family in Mansfield was at the centre of a social services investigation, and that Amber’s stepfather, Danny Peat, had moved out of the home on Bosworth Street.

It is understood that he is now living at his mother’s home at Ripley in Derbyshire.

The Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board confirmed that a ‘serious case review’ has been launched.

Such reviews are ‘undertaken when a child dies or is seriously injured, and abuse or neglect are known or suspected to be factors in the death’ - according to Government guidelines.

Amber’s biological father, Adrian Cook, who lives in Scotland with his wife Lynda, maintains that Amber herself had spoken to Derbyshire County Council 16 months before she died, and wants to know whether those details were passed over to Nottinghamshire County Council when the family moved.

In a statement to Chad, Lynda said: “We are definitely wanting answers from them (Derbyshire County Council).

“We believe she (Amber) made statements to Derbyshire County Council herself but we want to know whether they were passed on to Nottinghamshire County Council when she moved.”

A Derbyshire County Council spokesman declined to comment on specifics of Amber’s case.

He said: “Amber’s death was extremely sad. We don’t comment on individual cases. A serious case review will be carried out by Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Board to see if any lessons can be learned. We’ll support this and any other review fully by providing any information which is requested.”