The brother of child abuse victim Maria Colwell has accused social workers of being no better than football hooligans in the wake of their protest action last week.

Stephen Colwell, 43, said he was disgusted by the actions of staff who came out in support of colleagues suspended following the tragic death of four-year-old John Smith.

He said similarities between the death of the little boy and his sister, almost 30 years ago, had left the family upset and angry that mistakes made in the past had been repeated.

Seven-year-old Maria was battered to death by her stepfather on Brighton's Whitehawk estate in January 1973.

Her death led to a Government inquiry and changes in social services.

Mr Colwell, from Hove, said: "When my sister died, her social worker was sacked for not doing her job properly. My wife and I feel the social workers in the John Smith case should be punished too.

"It is many years after Maria but these things are still going on. It seems like it has not got any better at all.

"Social services needs to have someone in charge of their social workers to make sure they are doing the job properly. They need better supervision.

"They should get retired teachers or policemen to go into social services.

"In all these cases, the police seem to do their job to the best of their ability but if social services had acted in the first place these things wouldn't be happening.

"I have been reading the letters in The Argus and they have all brought up Maria and I'm glad they have.

"This little boy's case has brought it all back to the surface. The way he was treated was absolutely terrible.

"The social workers should have checked and they didn't. It's what they are for.

"For the social workers to act like they did last week was disgusting.

"To me and my wife, you would have thought they had just come from a football match, acting like a lot of hooligans."

Mr Colwell, who was brought up by his grandparents, said he believed similarities in the two cases went beyond failures within the social services.

He believes if Maria's case had occurred today, his mother, now dead, would have gone to prison too.

He said: "I blame my mother as well. I think it happens a lot, where the wife covers up for the man. I know for a fact my mother was involved."

Earlier this week, a spokesman for UNISON, which represents social workers in the city, said the protests were aimed at preventing the repeat of another Maria Colwell or John Smith tragedy.