HAMPSHIRE social workers doctored a report into the parents of five children taken into foster care as part of an attempted "cover-up", a judge has found.

Judge Mark Horton claimed staff at Hampshire County Council lied on oath and distorted an assessment to leave a "wholly negative" picture of parents asking for their children back.

One social worker has been sacked, but the council denies those named deliberately misled the court and says it is considering its position over alleged inaccuracies in the judge's criticism.

Judge Horton's damning remarks came at the end of a two-year battle for the youngsters' custody at Portsmouth Family Court.

The council won its bid to keep the children in foster care after the judge said they had suffered "neglect" by their parents.

But Judge Horton said team manager Kim Goode organised changes to the report and "attempted to keep the truth" from the court leading to their illegal removal from the parents.

Naming Sarah Walker-Smart as the other officer involved, he added: ''It is exceptional to find a case in which there has been deliberate and calculated alteration of a report prepared by one social worker in order to make that assessment seem less favourable, by another social worker and the team manager; the withholding of the original report when it was ordered to be disclosed and the parties to the alterations lying on oath one of them twice, in order to try to cover up the existence of the original report.''

The judge also criticised Ms Goode's manager, Lisa Humphreys, for her "hollow apology" to the parents.

Ms Goode now holds a senior role at Isle of Wight Council, while Ms Humphreys is an assistant director at Lambeth Council in London.

Judge Horton said the parent's "inability to set consistent boundaries had led to appalling neglect of the older children's educational, emotional and social development and neglect of all of the children's health needs.

''The younger children were at risk of suffering similar significant harm unless the state intervened," he added.

Isle of Wight Council declined to comment on Ms Goode, while a Lambeth spokesman would only say the council was "aware of the case".

A spokesman for Hampshire County Council said: “This is a very complex case as evidenced in the findings – involving very serious neglect to vulnerable children. We are very pleased that the outcome of the court case was consistent with the local authority’s original application to the court – to safeguard very vulnerable children who were at risk of suffering significant harm as a result of neglect.

“There are some aspects of the court’s criticism that we believe are not quite correct however, and are considering our position in this regard. We do accept that there were deficiencies in some of the social worker practice in this case and subsequent action was taken, including the termination of one social worker’s employment with the county council."

The county council spokesman refused to say which member of staff had been sacked.