A JUDGE has ordered top officials from Blackburn with Darwen Council to attend court to explain why a home has not been found for a disabled offender.

Wheelchair user Anthony Tasker, 34, who has admitted threats to kill, is in the hospital wing of Preston jail.

For three months the probation service has been trying to get him accommodation so he can be released and be given a community sentence but neither the council housing department nor social services seemed to be accepting responsibility for him, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Now managers have been told to explain themselves to a judge.

Tasker's barrister told the court he needed to be released to get the treatment and help he needed. Judge Beverley Lunt ordered the council's housing needs manager Steve Richards and a senior social worker who would take action to attend the court on Friday, February 3.

The judge said if the council spent as much time allocating houses as it did titles to its employees the hunt for accommodation might have had more success.

She said she wanted an explanation why, after an offer of temporary accommodation had been made before December 1, it was no longer on offer and nothing suitable was available.

She also wished to know why it was the housing department was now saying it was up to social services to find Tasker somewhere to live.

Tim Ashmole, for Tasker, said the defendant's needs were being looked after in the hospital wing.

The local authority was now saying it did not accept respons-ibility for Tasker and social services did not seem to do either.

The barrister said Tasker had been offered accommodation before Christmas but that had been rescinded.

Judge Lunt went on: "I need to know if the social services department accepts that obligation and if they do what have they been doing."

Mr Ashmole told the court: "It seems with due respect to the local authority and the social services unless they are brought to book nothing will be done."

He added Anne Munro, a senior probation officer at Blackburn, shared that frustration and despite her efforts had been passed from pillar to post without success.

He continued: "All she is doing is trying to help this man back into society."