PC run amok

Authorities didn't want to seem bigoted, so they declined to investigate a pair of homosexual foster parents after hearing allegations of abuse.

Managers and social workers were reluctant to investigate Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey for fear of being accused of prejudice.

Instead, they were viewed as "trophy carers" who, by virtue of their sexuality, had a "badge" which made their actions less questionable.

A mother of eight-year-old twins raised concerns about them with social services after finding a photograph of one of the boys using the lavatory.

But the authorities took no action, accepting that the two men had been "naive and silly".

In reality, they had been using the boys for sexual gratification within months of being approved as carers by the Labour-run Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.

Faunch, 42, and Wathey, 33, were jailed last year for a string of offences against four boys, aged between eight and 14, at their home in Pontefract, West Yorks.

The victims were among 18 children placed with the pair, Yorkshire's first homosexual foster parents, between August 2003 and January 2005.

Speechless, I'm speechless.