JUDICIAL REVIEW: R (ET) v Islington Borough Council

By Samantha Bangham, Law Reporter - 13 November 2012

(Queen's Bench Division, Cranston J, 30 October 2012)

The three sisters lived with their maternal grandmother. The mother had a history of substance abuse and had been in a relationship with a man who had been convicted of child sexual abuse. In 2012 he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy who was the son of a friend. He was also placed on the sexual offender's register for 10 years and made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order.

The local authority carried out a risk assessment which concluded that the risk posed by the man could be managed and that the only necessary addition to measures being taken would be for the grandmother to take out an injunction against the man.

The children, through their litigation friend, the grandmother, sought judicial review of that decision. The claim would be dismissed. Assessing the criminal risk posed to the children was not central to the local authority's work but was a task for the criminal justice agencies. A wide range of agencies had been consulted and a considered judgment of the risk was made. It could not be said that the authority had acted with Wednesbury unreasonableness.

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