Abuse Survivors Blog

Tracey Emmott on BBC News - Roman Catholic church refused Supreme Court sex abuse appeal.

A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest is set to sue the Roman Catholic Church after it was refused a last chance to reverse a ruling holding it responsible.

Roman Catholic church refused Supreme Court sex abuse appeal

 

A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest is set to sue the Roman Catholic Church after it was refused a last chance to reverse a ruling holding it responsible.

In a binding ruling for all future cases in the UK and which may well influence those across the world, the Catholic church has failed to reverse a legal judgment which holds it responsible for sex abuse committed by its priests.

Campaigners have warned that keeping children safe online is one of the biggest child protection issues of the modern world.
According to the NSPCC, young people are now experiencing new forms of abuse "on a scale never before seen".
The charity states that children should be given lessons in how to use the internet safely from as young as five or six. They are concerned there are rising numbers of youngsters being exposed to online pornography, cyberbullying and being forced into sending indecent images to others.
According to the NSPCC, last year there was an increase in calls about online pornography, with some from children as young as 11. Their research had shown many teenagers see "sexting" and hard-core pornography as the norm, with some describing it as "mundane", and some had been blackmailed or coerced into sending indecent images of themselves to strangers or other youngsters.
Claire Lilley, from the NSPCC, said: "Young people tell us they are experiencing all sorts of new forms of abuse on a scale never before seen. It's now clear that we are facing an e-safety time bomb, with this being one of the biggest child protection issues of our time.

An attempted legal appeal by the Catholic church to the Supreme Court over sex abuse by one of its priests could decide whether victims of Jimmy Savile can make claims against hospitals and the BBC.

An extract from this article was published in the Times and Citizen on 10th January 2013

A local council has reassured four young people who were sexually abused by their father for 12 years while under its care that their horrific experience couldn't happen again.

The four people, who can't be named, approached Milton Keynes South MP Iain Stewart, after winning a legal case for negligence against Milton Keynes council. Social workers knew that the father had sexually abused his children in April 1992. Yet six months later they permitted him to return to the family home with no action taken and the children's names removed from the child protection register.

'CD' v Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority Appeal Panel

We represented the appellant 'CD' who on 13th September 2012 was awarded the maximum sum payable to any victim of crime in the UK, by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, in the sum of £500,000.

Our client was born in 1968. After her parents separated between 1974 and 1984 when aged between 6 and 16 she visited her father on weekend access visits. He subjected her to sexual assaults on many occasions and engaged her in posing for pornographic photographs. She was privately educated but experienced panic attacks and lack of concentration at school resulting in her underachieving academically. She achieved one 'O' level, embarking on a series of destructive relationships and turning to alcohol to block out the memories of the abuse. From these relationships the appellant gave birth to a son and daughter.

The Court of Appeal ruled today that the Portsmouth Diocese is legally responsible for child abuse committed by one of its clergy. The appeal is part of a civil action brought by Miss JGE (name withheld). She claims that she was sexually abused by a Catholic priest whilst resident in a children's home run by the church.

In November last year the High Court found that the church is responsible for the sexual misbehaviour of its clergy, a ruling which the church disputed.
The church had claimed that, on a technicality of employment law, it could not be held legally responsible because there is no formal employment relationship with their priests. But in the first hearing Mr Justice Macduff decided that the professional relationship between a priest and his bishop is sufficiently close so as to impose responsibility. The case involved the late Father Baldwin, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth.

This firm has successfully represented 5 survivors of appalling abuse by Reverend Roy Cotton, a now deceased Church of England vicar.

Over the past 12 - 18 months damages awards of 5 and 6 figure sums have been agreed with legal representatives for the Diocese of Chichester. In all cases liability was admitted by the Church of England's lawyers, and no points were taken on the fact that the victims' claims were in law, decades 'out of time'. In some cases verbal apologies were issued by high office holders of the Chichester Diocese.