Maria Colwell was born on 25 March 1965. She was the fifth child of Raymond and Pauline Colwell, née Tester, and Mrs Colwell's sixth child. Her parents had separated a few weeks before her birth and, within two months, in July 1965, Mr Colwell had died following a brief but catastrophic illness that, thereafter, gave rise to a substantial, sustained feud between his own family and that of his estranged wife.

Within a few weeks of Mr Colwell's death his wife, in the words of the Colwell Inquiry report, ‘went completely to pieces’. The four elder Colwell children were received into local authority care, the younger two being placed with Mrs Colwell's mother, Mrs Tester. She already had care of Mrs Colwell's first child, who had been brought up to believe that she was Mrs Tester's daughter. No attempts were ever made, by Mrs Colwell, to resume the care of these children.

Maria, however, was placed by her mother, on a voluntary basis, in the care of her late husband's sister, Mrs Cooper. From the outset, that arrangement was a fraught one. Twice, within the first six months, Mrs Colwell removed Maria from her aunt and twice, on the intervention of the NSPCC, Maria was returned to Mrs Cooper. On the second occasion, the arrangement was formalised through a local authority Care Order. The basis on which Maria was then fostered by the Coopers was ambiguous and a matter of dispute before the Inquiry. It was clear that Mrs Colwell objected to the placement and that, in the first instance at least, it was clearly signalled to the Coopers that the arrangement was ‘temporary’, until a different, more permanent arrangement could be made. Nevertheless, no alternatives were ever put in place, and Maria remained in the care of Mr and Mrs Cooper for a further six years.

During this period, Mrs Colwell's contact with Maria was sporadic. By 1967 she had formed a new relationship with William (‘Bill’) Kepple, an Irishman in possession of a large number of aliases and a reputation for ‘wildness’. Together they moved very rapidly through a large number of very substandard, privately rented addresses, with Mrs Colwell giving birth to children of the relationship in 1967, 1968 and 1970.