A FIVE-YEAR-OLD girl was taken into care by social workers after her weight ballooned to more than 10 stone, at least three times what is expected of a healthy child.

Child protection experts this weekend labelled the case “a tragedy” and expressed disbelief that action was not taken sooner by the local council.

The child, one of the heaviest five-year-old girls recorded in the UK, was taken into care in Newport, south Wales, in August last year.

She weighed 10st 5lb — heavier than any five-year-old of either sex recorded in an English school since 2008. Typically girls of that age weigh about three stone, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Newport city council said the decision was made purely because