A judge has found Cardiff council responsible for an "appalling" breach of its legal responsibilities to a disabled 23-year-old man it removed from a care placement where he had been happy. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had previously attended Elidyr Communities Trust, a specialist residential college in Carmarthenshire, for a number of years.
In a damning ruling, Mrs Justice Steyn said it was "frankly astonishing" the council had failed to take the urgency of the situation seriously or comply with court rulings ordering it to act. She said the contents of her judgement "shame Cardiff City Council" and said she would wait to decide on further punishment to see if the council apologised and what efforts it took to comply with orders to care for the man.
In a statement, Cardiff council said it would be writing to the man's family to apologise formally and said it "fully accepts that mistakes were made". The High Court sitting in Cardiff had heard that the council had withdrawn funding for the autistic man's care at Elidyr Communities Trust but had not put in an effective care and support plan.
