CHILDREN separated from their families for five years over false claims of satanic sex abuse are suing social workers.
The eight, now young adults, are to claim that their rights have been breached under the European Convention.
South Ayrshire Council could now face a bill in excess of pounds 1million even though the matter was handled by the old Strathclyde Regional Council.
The children were kept from their three families between June 1990 and March 1995.
The intense questioning they faced was condemned as abuse by Scotland's senior judge who then sent them home.
The group had solicitors acting on their behalf, but the Scottish Legal Aid Board refused to fund the actions.
But legal aid has now been granted in one case and approval for the rest is expected to follow.
The actions could open the floodgates for other cases including the children of Orkney 16 of whom were removed from their homes.
The Ayrshire children were taken into care in 1990 after a request from one of their mothers to examine her youngsters.
It later emerged that she and her husband were about to split up and she had been emotionally unstable.
The examinations did not reveal abuse, but her children were kept in care.
Within days, many of their cousins, including a six-month-old baby who did not see her mother again until she had started school, were also removed.
A spokesman for South Ayrshire Council said it would defend any action "vigorously".