FIVE children have been taken from the care of their mother after a family court judge heard that they had been locked in a bedroom which had no handles on the door.

One child - a boy now aged eight - had told police how his mother would push a knife under the door if the youngsters needed to leave so they could "manipulate" their way out.

Judge Simon Wood said the boy had been seven when he made the "extraordinary" claim.

The judge said he did not think that the youngster had "made it up".

Detail has emerged in a ruling by Judge Wood following a private hearing in a family court in Newcastle.

The judge did not identify anyone involved but said Gateshead Council social services' bosses had asked him to make decisions about the futures of the children - who were aged between 16 and six.

He said the youngsters had the same mother but different fathers.

Social workers raised a series of concerns and said the children had suffered significant harm.

Staff said the children had suffered "chronic neglect" - and said their mother's childhood had been dysfunctional.

Judge Wood said the children had already been placed into temporary foster care pending the outcome of family court proceedings - and he ruled that they should stay in foster care.

"(The boy's) claim (was) that there were no door handles on the bedroom door and that his mother would lock them in, pushing a knife under the door to open it when they needed to be out," said the judge in his ruling.

"Mother denied to the police that there were no door handles until confronted by the photographs that showed plainly the position. She now says that they were off the door because she was decorating but she denied locking them in and repeatedly denied that a knife was passed through underneath the door to enable them to let themselves out."

The judge added: "It is such an extraordinary thing that (the boy) said to the police, a seven-year-old. He said it to the social worker at school as well. I cannot accept that he has made it up. Why would he?"