A Government spokesman last night denied that civil servants had kept the truth about a toddler's death from Health Minister Clarence Terceira.

Meanwhile the head of an anti-child abuse organisation revealed the name of a social worker whom she said was "closely involved'' with D'shun Dill.

Following the two-year-old's death on December 14, 1994, Government denied that the Department of Child and Family Services ever had D'shun "in care''.

Last week his father Paul Darrell was sentenced to a jail term of 14 years for killing him.

On Wednesday, Coalition for the Protection of Children (CPC) chairwoman Sheelagh Cooper said Dr. Terceira had been "misinformed'' about issues surrounding D'shun's death and the part the department played in it when he made a statement earlier in the day.

Yesterday a spokesman said there was "no question of any mistake having been made, or of some officer of the department having deliberately concealed some embarrassing or awkward fact. Dr. Terceira's statement yesterday was correct and the Government rejects the suggestion that he was misled.'' The spokesman said the woman Mrs. Cooper described as D'shun's foster mother had no legal status.

"A foster parent has legal status. People apply to be foster parents and are selected by the Department of Child and Family Services as people who are suitable to care for children.

"The department has legal custody and control of the foster child and legally defined supervisory responsibilities.'' And he stressed: "The Department of Child and Family Services did not have custody of the child, had no responsibility for supervising their relationship and was not in a position to give custody of the child to anyone.'' Mrs. Cooper said the CPC never suggested the department had legal custody or that the child was in care.

She said: "The CPC has maintained and continues to maintain that this child was in a voluntary foster home and that during that one year period, the department was closely involved with the child through a series of visits by social worker Perry Smith.

Dill row "The technical and legal definition of foster parent is a smokescreen to help mask the very definite involvement of the department in the life and ultimate death of this child.

"The salient point, however, which has been carefully sidestepped by the department is that the department knew this baby had been abandoned by its mother.

"They -- in the person of social worker Perry Smith -- visited the home on a regular basis and they -- again Perry Smith -- did most, if not all, of the necessary preparation for the adoption of this baby by the care giver.''