Foster family to sue for negligence

Four children who were sexually abused by a teenager fostered by their family yesterday won the right to sue the council and the social worker who placed him there for negligence.

A High Court judge said that the social worker had a duty of care to provide the foster parents with "reasonable" information - in this case that the boy had earlier received a caution for an indecent assault. But the judge, Mr Justice Hooper, said that the parents were not allowed to go ahead with their compensation claim for the trauma suffered after the 15-year-old boy sexually assaulted all four of their children, aged between seven and 12.