A 16-YEAR-OLD girl whose older brother beat her with a table leg after she objected to him watching a World Cup football match must go into local authority care, a family court judge has ruled.

The girl said she was attacked during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when she was 15 and her brother was in his late teens, Judge Simon Wood was told at a hearing in a family court in Newcastle.

Her brother and mother had denied that she had been assaulted. Her mother said she had fainted, while her brother said she was not in the room.

But the judge was told that the girl had "linear marks" on her thigh and arm plus marks on her back and bruising on her shoulder.

He concluded that the girl was telling the truth - and decided that her mother had seen the attack and had chosen not to intervene.

The judge said the girl had been taken into interim foster care shortly after the attack - pending decisions about her long-term future.

Judge Wood has not named the family in a written ruling on the case.

He said the family was Nigerian and had moved to England a decade ago and settled in Sunderland. He said the girl's father had been in Nigeria at the time of the attack.

The judge said Sunderland City Council had responsibility for the girl's welfare and had asked him to make decisions about her future.

He said the girl had told how her brother had hit her before - and said "other people" had hit her when she was in Nigeria.

The girl said her brother had also been "beaten" and said it was "common" for children to be hit in Nigeria.

She said she "only learned that it was not normal in the United Kingdom" when she started living in foster care.

Judge Wood ruled that she should go into long-term care.

The judge said the girl had been attacked during the afternoon of June 20 2014 - when Italy lost to Costa Rica in a game in England's qualifying group. She said she had wanted to watch a film after getting from school and said her brother wanted to watch the game.

He said police had investigated but did not say whether the girl's brother had been convicted of any offence.

Judge Wood criticised police over the way they had dealt with the girl later in 2014 after she ran away from a foster care placement.

The judge said the girl had been found at her home. He said he was extremely concerned at the level of force which had been used.

"I want to register my extreme concern at the level of force which was used when the police recovered (the girl) from her home when she ran away from foster care," said the judge in his ruling.

"She was handcuffed, under what power is not clear, and the incident is said to have been recorded because of its nature.

"This incident needs to be noted and taken up by the local authority in conjunction with the police."

He said the incident was had been "harmful" to the girl and indicated that he did not want such a thing to happen again.

"I do not know what the local authority response to it was at the time, what its response has been since," he said.

"I do seek separately an explanation from the local authority and the police as to the circumstances that were pertaining and as to what measures have been devised and agreed upon to avoid a repetition of such an event in the future."