A foster mother nearly stabbed to death by a foreign teenager placed in her care has launched a scathing attack on social services - and accused them of gambling with her safety.
Christine Mackay - who had been told the youth was well-behaved – lost four pints of blood after being savagely attacked with a kitchen knife as she slept.
The teenager, housed with her just three days after arriving in the UK illegally and with no identification papers, was last month sentenced to 14 years for attempted murder.
Carer: Christine Mackay, right, was stabbed with a 4 inch knife by the youth, left
Although he claimed to be 15 at the time of the attack, police sources now believe he may have been at least 18.
Mrs Mackay, 58, who fosters other children, is demanding that social services carry out more rigorous checks on immigrants.
‘The truth was that none of the authorities knew anything about this boy at all,’ she said. ‘But they were prepared to gamble and put him into my home where I had three other vulnerable children.
‘He could have been 15 but he could have been 23. He could have been a paedophile or a rapist.
‘Social services go to such lengths to check those who foster and adopt. They check your friends, your family members, even your pets, but when it suits them they will ask you to take a huge risk with someone about whom they know nothing.’
The case is only the latest example of authorities struggling to establish the ages of asylum seekers.
In February, a court heard human traffickers were coaching adult asylum seekers to act like children to receive better treatment and more benefits.
Mrs Mackay’s ordeal began in July last year when the boy was brought to her home near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
He had been picked up in the town by police and claimed to be a 15-year-old Palestinian called Aziz Achaheb-Cedar.
His apparent nationality suggested he had a strong case for asylum.
It emerged at his trial that he later told authorities his name was David Maria-Garcia, insisting he was in fact from Morocco.
As an unaccompanied minor, Milton Keynes social services department was obliged to find him accommodation.
Mrs Mackay said she was given a report on him by the council – saying he joined in ‘family routines’ and ‘will wash up when asked’ – but it was far from reality.
When he moved in, the teenager was provided with Sky TV in his bedroom, a bicycle and a mobile phone.
Within a month, however, he had tried to steal Mrs Mackay’s car and attempted to hang himself.
She told authorities she wanted to end the placement, but was persuaded to continue.
By late September the youth’s behaviour had deteriorated further. ‘I was frightened of him,’ Mrs Mackay said. ‘He was looking at me like he wanted to kill me. I rang up and said that I did not feel safe in my own home.’
Social services agreed to re-home the teenager, but he disappeared two days later. After two weeks he returned, breaking in, taking a four-inch knife from the dishwasher and attacking Mrs Mackay as she slept at 2.15am.
She said: ‘I grabbed the blade and just refused to let go of it. He tried to pull it away from me and in doing so he cut through 40 per cent of the tendons in my hands and almost severed a thumb.’
The youth fled when Mrs Mackay screamed.
Milton Keynes social services said the teenager had been ‘age assessed following established procedure and deemed to be 15 years of age and thus was accepted as a child in care’.
‘Social workers carried out a full assessment to gather as much information as possible,’ it added. ‘The assessment included a full risk assessment.’
Police are still trying to determine the youth’s origins so he can be deported after his sentence.
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