‘Child’ refugee who turned on his carer and tried to kill her

...and the council that sent him to her won’t pay a penny in compensation after judge’s decision

A FostEr carer who was nearly killed by an adult masquerading as a 15-year-old asylum seeker has been told she cannot claim damages from the council that sent him to her.

Christine Mackay took the man into her home in July 2011, three days after he arrived illegally into the uK in a lorry from spain with no identification papers.

He told authorities he was a 15-year- old unaccompanied asylum seeker called Aziz Achaheb-Cedar, from Palestine. As a result, Milton Keynes Council was obliged to find him accommodation.

In october 2011 social services agreed to rehome him after Mrs Mackay told them she wanted to end the placement, but he disappeared two days later. After two weeks he returned, breaking into her home near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, taking a four-inch knife from the dishwasher and attacking Mrs Mackay as she slept at 2.15am.

she said: ‘I grabbed the blade and just refused to let go of it. He tried to pull it away from me and in doing so he cut through 40 per cent of the tendons in my hands and almost severed a thumb.’

the youth fled when she screamed. Mrs Mackay, who is employed as a foster carer by Archway Fostering Agency, lost four pints of blood and suffered lacerated hands, sensory

‘He could have been a rapist’

loss and nerve damage following the savage attack. the man, whose real identity was later revealed to be David Maria- Garcia, from spain, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for attempted murder in April 2012.

Mrs Mackay, who is in her sixties, claimed the council failed to disclose important information about him before his placement, which she says would have led her to refuse him.

she tried to claim compensation, arguing the council owed her a duty of care. But at a hearing at oxford County Court in March, a judge denied Mrs Mackay’s claim.

the case was later taken to the High Court, but yesterday Mr Justice spencer refused permission to appeal against the decision.

He said: It was plainly a matter of regret to the judge that she was constrained to strike out the claim. she expressed her sympathy for the claimant, who had suffered at the hands of someone who appeared to be a child in need of safeguarding, and whom she was seeking to care for and protect for the public good.

‘I share the judge’s regret. nevertheless... I am quite satisfied that this appeal has, and had, no real prospect of success.’ Mrs Mackay previously said: ‘ the truth was that none of the author- ities knew anything about this boy at all, but they were prepared to gamble and put him into my home where I had three other vulnerable children.

‘He could have been 15 but he could have been 23. He could have been a paedophile or a rapist. social services go to such lengths to check those who foster and adopt. they check your friends, your family members, even your pets, but when it suits them they will ask you to take a huge risk with someone about whom they know nothing.’ representatives of Milton Keynes Council were unavailable for comment last night.