Child abuse victim was placed with paedophile foster father

A CHILD abuse victim was placed into the care of a paedophile foster father after failures by a local council, the High Court has heard.

The woman, who was placed with the family aged seven in the early Nineties after being abused by male relations, yesterday won the right to compensation from Tower Hamlets council in east London.

The judge making the ruling yesterday said the couple had not been trained by social services and had not been assessed as suitable foster parents. He also criticised police for failing to bring the woman’s abusers to justice sooner.

The woman’s foster father was a sex offender who attacked her repeatedly, the court heard. She was eventually taken from the family, but it was not until years later that the man was charged and jailed for offences including rape.

Judge Barry Cotter QC awarded the victim the right to damages, which are likely to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He said the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had suffered appalling abuse at the hands of at least two members of her own family. She was removed from the family by Tower Hamlets council and placed in foster care with the man and his wife.

In her claim, the victim said she had complained to a social worker as a young child of “inappropriate” kissing by her foster father.

However, no action was taken and the abuse graduated from inappropriate touching to indecent assault and rape.

Police investigated her complaints in 2000, but took no action, in part due to a “misinterpretation” of medical evidence.

“It is beyond doubt that the claimant was very badly let down by this criminal investigation and a number of separate individuals,” the judge said.

After further evidence came to light years later, the adoptive father was finally convicted and jailed for more than 10 years. The victim began a claim for damages against him in 2016.

At the High Court, the man once again denied all of the allegations, suggesting they had been made up out of bitterness or for financial gain. Judge Cotter said the father came “nowhere near” proving that the allegations were false.

The damages will be assessed at a further hearing.