A COUNCIL has been condemned in an independent report for sending a boy back to his North-East father who sexually abused him.

Doncaster Borough Council gave the 13-year-old child and his 17-year-old brother train tickets to Gateshead so they could stay with their abusing father for two weeks.

The boy's mother is now considering legal action against the authority for exposing him to danger.

The report, compiled by the charity Voice for the Child in Care, stated: "From the time (the boy) was put on the train to Newcastle he was at risk."

But the report did not uphold the mother's complaints that she was misled, after she alleged she had been assured by the council her child would not be returned to the North-East.

The boy, now 14, was abused by his father when he was two and by another man when he was 11. He is now staying with his mother in Doncaster.

A spokesman for Doncaster council said the social services department had since acted on the report's recommendations to tighten up procedures.