A COUNCIL has paid a mother and her children £45,000 in damages after a judge found the local authority had breached their human rights.

Judge Stuart Farquhar said the youngsters - a boy, 12, and his 11-year-old sister - should each get £20,000 from West Sussex County Council.

He said their mother should also get £5,000 damages because her human rights had also been breached.

Staff had taken more than two years to ask a judge to make decisions about the children's long-term futures, said Judge Farquhar.

The judge said there had been "inordinate delay".

He said staff had also failed to promote contact between the children and their mother and the council had wrongly "purported" to exercise parental responsibility.

Lawyers for the children and their mother had launched damages claims after complaining that Articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights - which protect the right to a fair trial and the right to respect for family life - had been breached.

Council bosses had disputed the damages claims.

But yesterday a spokeswoman told The Argus that the local authority accepted the judgement.

She said: “We accept that the length of time from when we started to care for the children up until care proceedings commenced was too long.

“A number of factors contributed towards this including work to return the children to a previous foster carer who the children knew and loved, and time to complete an assessment of the mother.

“All of the actions were taken to try to achieve a long-term stable placement for the children. This was a lengthy and sensitive process.

“We have learnt from the judgment and this has informed our current practice.”

Judge Farquhar said the children - who have links to Jamaica - had now been placed into long-term foster care.

The judge announced damages decisions in the ruling after analysing evidence at a private family court hearing in Brighton.

He did not identify anyone involved.