THE anguish that East Lancashire love-tug mother Josephine Bromley has undergone in the days since her young daughters were abducted to Jordan by her ex-husband has already been more than most could bear.

How cruel -- and mistaken -- it is, then of the legal aid authorities to deny her financial help to fight through the courts for the return of her children, six-year-old Noor and Salam, aged 10.

Yet the Legal Services Commission seems to have adopted the role of judge and jury and determined for itself the outcome -- and have as good as declared that her case is hopeless.

But even though part it may have a duty to assess the viability of claims for legal aid, it , surely, also has a duty to support the cause of justice.

And In this case, natural justice alone dictates that there is a severe wrong to be righted. These children, after all, were abducted to Jordan by trickery on the part of their father, Jehad Al-Momani, who exploited his legal rights of access to his daughters, breached them in order to get them out of the country and now, apparently, scoffs at the powers of the law to ensure their return.

To find the Legal Services Commission effectively supporting his outlook is bad enough, but as family judge David Gee remarked after he made the girls wards of court and called on the Jordanian government to return them to Britain, it shows a complete lack of understanding of the issues as the courts are not entirely powerless in such cases.

That is evident from the next stage of the process -- obliging the Jordanian authorities to respond to his appeal and, after that, the potential for the High Court to become involved and make direct representation to Jordan's ambassador.

But, in all this, Miss Bromley needed legal advice and representation before now and will need it in the future. And if her need for legal aid in order to acquire it is clear to a judge expert in family law, it ought to become clear to the Legal Services Commission -- fast.