CARRY Ann Brown died in August 2003 following a car crash on the M6. She had been driven away from her foster home in the Whitebirk area of Blackburn, by her father.

Today a report was being published by the Area Child Protection Committee into the youngster's care. Chief reporter MICHELLE FIDDLER looked at the background to the case. . .

LAST month Sean Brown pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to murdering his 14-year-old daughter.

A judge jailed him for life and recommended he serve at least 19 years before he is eligible for parole.

Brown, 35, of Huntington Drive, Darwen, was also jailed for 21 months to run concurrently for having unlawful sex with his daughter. A charge of raping her was allowed to lie on the file.

Preston Crown Court heard how Carry Ann, a pupil at Darwen Vale High School, died five days after the car crash on the motorway, south of Carlisle.

She had been taken by her father from the home where she had been living in with foster carers.

Carry Ann sustained fatal injuries when the car, a Hyundai Getz, crashed.

She lay on a life-support machine at Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, for five days before the decision was made by the hospital and the family solicitor to switch the machine off.

In June last year Carry Ann had been taken to Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, after vomiting and it was discovered she was pregnant. She later had an abortion and Brown was arrested on suspicion of unlawful sex. According to the prosecution, forensic tests proved he was the father.

Carry Ann was taken into foster care but had supervised family visits.

On one of those visits - on August 14, 2003, the day of her death - the court was told that Brown arranged to take her away from the foster home. Brown told his family he intended to kill himself and his daughter by crashing the car off the motorway.

He insisted his daughter had agreed to the plan, telling his parents: "You should always listen to the child. If that is what she wants, that is what we will do."

Carry Ann called her father and at 5.30pm pretended she was going out to visit a friend. She instead met with Brown.

He drove along the M6 to the Scottish border then headed southwards. The prosecution alleged Carry Ann was given the sleeping drug Nytol and had been lying on the car's back seat.

He then deliberately drove his car off the road through a fence and down an embankment.

Carry Ann sustained serious head and internal injuries.

Brown then attempted to kill himself by driving into the path of a lorry, which clipped him, and then threatened to jump off a nearby bridge.

He was talked down by police.

Carry Ann was taken to Cumberland Infirmary, in Carlisle. Her ventilator was switched off five days later.