A brother and sister who suffered almost four years of horrific sexual abuse WILL get the full and open inquiry they want into their case – after a dramatic U-turn by Leicestershire County Council.

Reacting to the news, the boy said: "It's brilliant, I'm really glad.

"The council will have to get its act together now.

"It's all been worth it. We don't want anyone else to have to go through what we have."

The children had accused the county council of using an internal review to cynically try to cover-up a catalogue of alleged failures that left them in the clutches of their step-father Mark Thomas and his brother, Paul.

After their story appeared on the front page of the Mercury yesterday, council leader David Parsons has now agreed to grant the children the review they want.

He intervened after the teenagers courageously said, in this newspaper, how they were systematically raped, starved and beaten when little more than toddlers – despite repeated concerns for their welfare being raised with the authorities.

The girl first told a nursery nurse her daddy had hurt her on the bed in February 1999.

Social services were informed, but the children were not removed from their squalid Ibstock home until November 2002 – three years and 10 months later.

"I think it's fair to say there was a lot I didn't know," said Coun Parsons after reading yesterday's newspaper. "As soon as I saw your story, I acted. I more or less agree with what you said in the Mercury."

The youngsters, now 15 and 16, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had said lessons must be learned to safeguard other children from paedophiles.

They had questioned the integrity of the council's review after a senior official had said the purpose of the review was to highlight the "excellent practices" of the authority's staff involved in the case.

The children called for the inquiry's findings to be made public so they could be properly scrutinised.

They also wanted the scope of the review to be widened to look at why social services had forced them to continue seeing Mark Thomas and their cruel mother, Alyson Mepham, after they had been taken into care – visits used by the couple to try to intimidate the children into staying silent about their abuse.

All of these issues will now be addressed in the review – and its findings will be made public.

The review will be impartial, promised Coun Parsons.

It will also examine the children's concerns – following the "excellent practices of our staff" comment – that the council had previously been trying to whitewash mistakes that might have been made.

Coun Parsons said: "Following your article, I have asked my officers to look at the independence of this report. They are going to come back to me quickly about that.

"I can see no problems in making the report public – with the children anonymous to protect their identities."

Mark and Paul Thomas were each jailed for 18 years last month after being convicted of a string of sex crimes against the youngsters. Mepham was sentenced to two-and-a-half years after admitting cruelty by neglect.

Detective Constable Andy Spence, of Leicestershire police, painstakingly built the case that put them all behind bars.

Yesterday, he welcomed the council's decision to address the children's concerns in its review.

"This report will give them the answers they need so they can be helped to move on," said Det Con Spence.

"They need to know lessons have been learned. They don't want anyone else to go through what they've been through."

The children's foster mother called the rethink a "good result".

She said: "It's just a shame that it took all this to get the council to act. The children are obviously delighted. They feel they are being listened to at long last."

North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen said: "This is an incredibly harrowing case. I cannot imagine what the children must have gone through.

"I welcome the news that the county council is looking to make the report independent and public. Clearly, lessons had to be learnt from this case, which seems to have come about through multi-agency failure."

Tom Rahilly, spokesman for the child protection charity the NSPCC, said: "This case demonstrates why it is vital to ensure that children are always at the centre of decision-making in child protection.

"It is vital that lessons are learned from this case to ensure that the experiences of the children involved are acted upon and we prevent similar cases happening in the future."

Yesterday's Leicester Mercury article:

How could horrifying child abuse have gone on so long?