A SOCIAL worker accused of questioning the looks of a child's mother has seen all charges against him dismissed.

Angus Welsh, an agency social worker for Lancashire County Council, had had the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) allegations hanging over him for nearly two years.

But the mother, who has not been named, refused to co-operate with the professional watchdog and five fitness to practice matters were dismissed after a hearing in London.

The watchdog's case relied upon a series of texts, said to have been sent by the social worker to the mother in January 2017 from a works mobile phone.

He was alleged to have threatened to take the child's case back to court, which could see the youngster removed from her care, and spoken down the mother during a meeting.

Mr Welsh, who is understood to come from West Craven, was also said to have questioned the woman's looks and warned her 'not to lead on' the child's father, the hearing was told.

He resigned from his post with the county council when the allegations, which were said to be sexually motivated, were first made.

Two witnesses gave evidence at the fitness to practice panel, Mr Welsh's team manager at the county council and the practice manager of his team, who was responsible for his day-to-day management.

But the mother failed to turn up at the disciplinary hearing and an application by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) lawyer to allow her statement to be admitted in her absence was turned down.

Another bid to allow a statement by one of Mr Welsh's managers, who was said to have seen the original text messages, was also rejected as "fourth-hand hearsay" evidence.

In e-mail exchanges with the HCPC she claimed that she thought the hearing had been first listed for July 7 and not July 1.

She claimed that she might be out of the country on the earlier date but then failed to respond to later e-mails by the regulator.

But counsel for Mr Welsh told the hearing that the mother had been present when the case was listed for a final determination last August.

Ruling that there was no case to answer, a HCPTS official said: "In the absence of (the mother) attending to give evidence, there was no direct evidence that she did receive text messages on or around 26 January 2017 from the registrant."

In a similar vein, the panel decided, without any direct evidence from the mother, there was no proof that she was 'spoken down to' or comments had been made concerning the child's father.