A GIRL who soiled herself was made to kneel in scalding water by her foster mother, a family-court judge has concluded.

The youngster, now 12, had also been seen picking up faeces in the garden of her Lancashire home, Judge Sarah Singleton said.

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The girl also told how she had been bitten by her foster parents’ rottweiler dogs.

Judge Singleton said the youngster had been left physically scarred and “deeply traumatised”.

The judge said the girl’s foster mother and father were responsible for “emotional abuse and neglect”.

Neighbours and school staff had been concerned, police and social workers had been involved and opportunities to protect had been missed, said the judge.

She said she was concerned about the “quality and superficiality” of an assessment carried out by social-services staff at Lancashire County Council.

The judge said the girl is now in the care of the council.

Detail has emerged in a ruling by the judge following a private hearing at a Blackpool family court.

The judge said she had been asked to make decisions about who had caused harm in order to help social workers plan for the youngster’s future.

She said the girl could not be identified.

The foster parents were not named — and the ruling gave no indication as to whether they had been charged with criminal offences.

Judge Singleton said the youngster’s mother was a black Zimbabwean asylum-seeker.

The woman had placed her daughter with the couple, who were British and white, under an “informal fostering arrangement”. A residence order had been made at a county court, said the judge.

Judge Singleton said the girl had been treated with “cold contempt” by her foster parents. The judge said the foster mother had demonstrated more warmth for the family’s animals than the girl when giving evidence at the court hearing.

Judge Singleton said the couple’s approach to the girl’s soiling problem had been “very cruel”.

The scalding injuries were probably linked to “somebody’s disgust and vituperation over the soiling accidents” and connected to an “abusive method” of “forcing her to clean herself up”, said the judge.

She said it was “very hard to contemplate” that the girl had been deliberately scalded.