Re: Child Abuse & the BKWSU
Posted: 09 May 2010
'Victims of sex abuse in Catholic children's homes set to win damages: 'Vulnerable' claimant showed 'incredible endurance' in pursuing group's case for 21 years to its conclusion at the high court' by Jamie Doward of The Observer, Sunday 9 May 2010
One of the longest-running legal cases in UK history ... is poised to end after a judge found in favour of two men who claimed they had been sexually assaulted ... while in the care of the Nugent Care Society, formerly Catholic Social Services, in Liverpool. It also cast doubt on the testimony by two former staff members at the homes who had denied the men's claims.
The allegations centred on sexual abuse between 1968 and 1982 ... Some of the claimants have settled and some have since died, while others killed themselves.
"The defendants have indicated they are going to settle this group action, which has been going on for 13 years," said Paul Durkin, a solicitor with Abney Garsden McDonald ... the defendants had engaged in "attitritional litigation" and had fought tooth and nail to deny the men's claims. "They threw much money at their defence," said Durkin, who acknowledged that the case could offer guidance to other sexual abuse victims.
The two men received £12,000 and £45,000 respectively in damages, plus interest, but Durkin said the action was not about money. "It was about their need for someone to recognise that as children they were wronged," he said.
Legal wranglings over whether the men could bring their claims more than 21 years after the abuse complicated proceedings.