Children staying in a private Sussex care home were exposed to a regime of sexual and physical abuse, the High Court has heard.

Former residents of Barlavington Manor, in Petworth, have begun a bid for compensation for the abuse they experienced in the Seventies and Eighties.

The group of ten men and women say they have suffered long-term psychiatric damage and are suing The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Southwark, who placed them at the home which closed almost 20 years ago.

Allegations include being tied to their beds at night; being forced to eat their own vomit and curry powder instead of mustard; being beaten with a bat and being humiliated and undermined.

Elizabeth Ann Gumbel QC, acting for the group, told Mr Justice Newman there was "overwhelming evidence" children were subjected to neglect while they were in care, as well as sexual, physical and mental abuse.

She said that there was "an unacceptable regime of physical and emotional abuse" and the couple who managed the home, John and Anna Ellis, were "unfit to care for children in public care".

There are no allegations of sexual abuse against the couple, both now dead but sex assaults are said to have been carried out by another member of staff.

Ms Gumbel said the local authorities - who deny any wrongdoing and say the case has been brought outside the legal time limit - had a duty of care to the children and should have detected the "repeated acts of abuse".

She added that social services records from the time documented "complaints and anxieties" about Barlavington Manor and any local authority showing "competent care" should have investigated them.

"In these circumstances, it was incumbent on each local authority placing children at Barlavington Manor to satisfy themselves that the home was properly run and that it provided a safe environment for the children placed there," she said.

The court case will centre on claims by four former residents, who, along with the other complainants, are seeking damages for pain and suffering, the cost of therapy and loss of earnings.

Ms Gumbel said Mr and Mrs Ellis later moved with some of the children in their care to nearby Rotherbridge Farm but continued to run Barlavington Manor.

She said that in 1999, Keith Bilton was appointed by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to investigate the complaints and found they were "substantially true".

"The claimants in this litigation suffered abuse over a period of years, often the vast majority of their childhood.

"They were deprived of the experience of making good adult relationships and lived in a regime from year to year without break which, it is alleged, was totally unacceptable."

She added the children were "exploited" for the business profits of Mr and Mrs Ellis.

The hearing, which is set to last three weeks, continues.