Essex County Council has set aside £6 million to cover costs of the police and social services raid on the Family In Trust home at Bicknacre in 1998.

The social services committee budgeted £3 million last year -- and a similar amount has now been agreed by councillors for the current financial year.

The money will be spent on mounting legal costs and relocating some of the children and young adults from the Old Convent, Moor Hall Lane, which Jeanette Roberts ran as a charitable trust.

Civil proceedings brought by Essex County Council against Jeanette Roberts and others have just been heard in the High Court and a judgement is expected next month.

Councillor Joe Pike, Conservative spokesman for social services, confirmed: "We have budgeted for a total of £6 million regarding the Old Convent. We have a duty to respond in cases such as this."

Jeanette Roberts, 51, was named Carer of the Year in 1989,

She took in her first child 25 years ago -- a five-year old boy she saw shoplifting in a Woolworth store -- and later set up a youth club.

She moved into the rambling Old Convent about 10 years ago, moving from London's East End, where her family home was bursting at the seams with 30 children.

She needed a house with a garden, and a housing association offered the ex-nunnery, complete with outbuildings.

Supporters rallied to renovate the neglected premises and, in 1986, a charitable trust was formed.

The November 1998 raid at the Old Convent involved at least 100 police and social services staff, and arrangements were made for children and adults to be rehoused elsewhere.

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