A couple have been convicted of abusing and assaulting children they were fostering.

The principal abuser, Jeffrey Tanner, 54, was cruel and depraved, the judge at King's Lynn Crown Court said.

Tanner and his wife Brenda Tanner, 53, of Gladstone Street, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, were found guilty of abuse and cruelty to three people who had lived with them, two of them children.

Jeffrey Tanner had forced a boy in his care to drink urine and eat faeces as a punishment.

I don't think anybody would have a kind word for them

Det Supt David Hankins

Another victim told police that she had been made to dance naked while holding heavy weights above her head.

A senior detective described the Tanners' cruelty as "one of the most despicable things you can imagine".

"I don't think anybody would have a kind word for them," said Detective Superintendent David Hankins.

"In the 26 years in which I have been in the police service it is one of the worst cases I have had to deal with in terms of child abuse."

In court on Tuesday Judge Isobel Plumstead said: "These are offences of cruelty, offences of depravity, offences of the breach of the greatest trust that anyone could have been guilty of."

Child protection agencies said there would be an inquiry to discover if improvements could be made.

Difficult upbringings

One of their victims was a girl placed in the couple's care by Cambridgeshire County Council who employed them as foster carers in the 1980s.

They were also unofficial foster parents to their second victim - a boy - with social workers' knowledge, the court was told.

The third victim, a woman now 40, was an adult who stayed with the family after becoming homeless.

All three had special educational needs and had endured very difficult upbringings, the court heard.

Cambridgeshire Social Services department has admitted failings at the time the couple were foster parents.

Services...did not meet the high standards to which the public were entitled

County council spokesman

"Cambridgeshire Social Services has always acknowledged that services in Cambridgeshire in the late 1980s and early 1990s were under severe pressure and did not meet the high standards to which the public was entitled," said a county council spokesman.

"However, following complete changes of senior management in 1998 in Cambridgeshire and lots of hard work by all social services staff, major improvements to child protection arrangements have been made."

For legal reasons the outcome of the Tanners' trial in April could not be reported until now.

Jeffrey Tanner was convicted of cruelty, administering noxious substances, unlawful wounding, assault and putting one of his victims in fear of violence.

He was cleared of indecency with the girl.

Substantial sentence

Brenda Tanner was convicted of cruelty to the two children and grievously harming the boy.

She was cleared of indecently assaulting the boy and of putting the woman in fear of violence.

Judge Plumstead said the Tanners had been guilty of a breach of trust and exploitation.

"There is no option for Jeffrey Tanner but a very substantial prison sentence," she said, and warned Brenda Tanner to expect to go to jail.