(Family Division, Peter Jackson J, 21 June 2012) 

Two boys, now aged 16 and 14, were accommodated as infants and freed for adoption but were never permanently placed. They had been placed with numerous foster carers throughout their childhood, some of whom were abusive, and became increasingly unsettled and disturbed causing irreparable damage. Links with their birth family were lost despite their not being adopted and the reviewing system did nothing to correct it.

The court made declarations that the local authority and the reviewing officer had acted incompatibly with the boys Art 8, 6 and 3 rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950.