Leading Child Abuse Lawyer Predicts Many More Claims as House of Lords Rewrites the Law for Victims

Access to compensation for abuse improved

One of the country’s leading child abuse lawyers has today welcomed the ruling by the House of Lords to hand discretion for setting time limits within which a sexual assault victim can make a complaint against their abuser, back to the courts, effectively ending the bizarre situation whereby child abuse victims over the age of 24 years of age couldn’t bring a claim against their abuser.

Tracey Storey from law firm Irwin Mitchell who had called the previous laws ‘Illogical’ says the impact of the Law Lords findings will have “huge ramifications for all victims of abuse and assault”, and she predicts it will open the floodgates to a large number of claims from victims of abuse who had previously been denied damages for the injuries suffered in childhood.

The House of Lords heard a number of cases concerning time limits in cases involving deliberate sexual assault and child abuse.  Whilst the majority of publicity has centered on the lead case, that of Mrs A against the so-called ‘Lotto rapist’ Iorwath Hoare, a serial rapist who won £7 million on the lottery whilst on day release,  all the cases looked at the limitations imposed on victims from being able to claim compensation for the damage and injury caused by their abuser.

Tracy Storey said: “There are time limits in all civil cases, in an assault claim the time limit for issuing the case in the court was six years from the assault or six years from the Claimant’s 18^th birthday.” 

Ms Storey, a member of the executive committee of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers (ACAL) explains: “The ruling today now allows courts the discretion to extend these deadlines, allowing people who have not previously spoken out about child abuse to be able to do so in their later years.”

“This is extremely important as there are many complex reasons why people may take many years to feel ready to speak out about traumatic abusive experiences. To limit this to the age of 24 was illogical and left many victims unable to claim damages they should have been entitled to for their suffering and ongoing mental trauma.”

Ms Storey concluded: “Claiming is of direct personal benefit to victims, in that the perpetrator is personally held to account for his crimes and any damages awarded is in direct proportion to the amount of harm caused, with funds going towards ongoing therapy and providing financial stability to a life very often destroyed through abuse.”