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Last night I was visiting my 23 year old daughter at her flat. Her flatmate was out which was nice as we could just have a chat between the two of us. I had just been shopping for dogfood for her two dogs and a carrot for her rat and had brought medication for the old dog from the vet. She was making me a cup of tea and I was watching the evening news on the TV. The news was featuring the case from Doncaster of two young brothers aged about 10 and 11 who have just pleaded guilty in Court to horrendous crimes against other young boys of a similar age or slightly younger. It stated that the boys were in the care of Social Services at the time and had been placed with foster parents although apparently their social worker had wanted them to be placed in secure accommodation. However apparently the social worker had been overruled by managers who did not want to spend the fees involved in a placement in secure accommodation. My daughter came back into the room with my tea and I was telling her about the case. I had said to my daughter that it was clear that the two brothers who had carried out the attacks had had terrible backgrounds and I think that mention had been made of drug abuse in their family background. My daughter then made an astonishing confession to me. I adopted my children 17 years ago when my daughter was aged 6 and her brother was aged 7. They had appalling backgrounds. Both their natural parents had been alcoholics and both had criminal records, their father had died in prison. They had been neglected and abused both while living at home and while in foster care. I subsequently discovered that they suffered from severe A.D.H.D. and Foetal Alcohol Effects. Years later a specialist, paid for by me, also said that he believed that my daughter had been suffering from P.T.S.D. The conditions in the foster home were terrible and the children were left to run wild on the street. They later told me that my son was the leader of a gang of young children who engaged in antisocial behaviour in their neighbourhood, including vandalism, breaking into their primary school and even setting small fires. In the foster home my son was regularly chastised with a belt by the foster father and my daughter was subjected to severe emotional abuse. My daughter was the most disturbed child that I had ever come across and I had specialised for some years in child care. I frankly thought she was unadoptable. I have always believed that, had the children not been adopted by me and if they had remained where they were, they would both have been in secure accommodation by the age of 10. So last night my daughter said to me in relation to the case in Doncaster that, if children have suffered terrible things in their lives, it makes them do terrible things. She told me that before she came to live with me no one had loved her and she had had no control over anything. She then told me about an incident when she had lured (her word) two children slightly younger than herself to waste ground belonging to the school and had locked them in a bunker where they had remained overnight until they were found the next day. She did not physically hurt them but she locked them in and left them there and she then went home for her tea. She told me that it had given her a feeling of control that she was never able to experience. However she was now able to reflect back and regret what she did and realise how awful it would have been for the children and how dire the consequences could have been if the children had not been found. Through all the years of the children living with me I was always failed by CAMHS who never helped us at all and in fact added to our problems. The children never received any therapy. However we have survived. The children still have significant problems but I truly believe that without the love and commitment of an adoptive parent they would have spent their lives in institutions, either prisons or psychiatric hospitals. My daughter''s life has been a roller coaster and we have gone through some very bad times but she has achieved so much. She attended College and obtained a qualification in Social Care. She is working in a nursing home and is devoted to the elderly people she cares for. She looks after her flat, cares for her pets and is being financially responsible. She has a strong bond with and affection for me.