Woman wins care negligence case

A woman has been awarded £60,000 in damages for the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother after a London council failed to take her into care.

The woman, 33, who can only be identified as NXS, said Camden Council should have taken her away from her mother, Miss P, before the age of 14.

The case, launched at the High Court in May 2008, concluded on Thursday.

The council's "breach of duty" left NXS in her mother's care, resulting in "years of abuse", the judge ruled.

The court heard NXS complained to the police in 2004 about her ill-treatment, following which her mother pleaded guilty to an offence of child neglect and was given a two-year community order.

Sexual abuse

NXS had formally asked the council for her records in 1996 but it was not until 2004 when she got a document from a GP which proved the council had been aware of Miss P's ill-treatment of her.

When NXS launched her case against Camden Council last year, the authority said it had been brought outside the time limit.

The council also disputed that the removal of NXS from her home would have been the inevitable outcome of a proper standard of care.

Mrs Justice Swift said it was now known that NXS's mother had subjected her daughter to physical, emotional and sexual abuse from birth.

Miss P was even heard saying that she sometimes wanted to "beat her to pulp" or kill NXS, the court heard.

The judge said if the council had undertaken a formal assessment of the mother it was "inconceivable" it would have found her fit to be a carer.