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Calls for up to 80 Further Public Enquiries into Child Abuse

The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers (A.C.A.L) says there should be up to another EIGHTY public inquiries into child abuse around the U.K. ‑ in the week the report of the North Wales inquiry Is published by Sir Ronald Waterhouse.

There are 80 police investigations around the country involving thousands of abuse victims none of whom have had the benefit of a public inquiry.

“What the victims want is their day in court, when the home owners are criticised for then lack of care and the abusers are rigorously questioned. Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen in their compensation cases. A public inquiry like North Wales is the closest they will get to real justice”, said Peter Garsden, an executive officer of the organisation,

A.C.A.L. is also demanding an apology for the abuse victims have suffered at the hands of the social care system in this country.

There is a further benefit to the victims of having a public inquiry ‑ the lawyers in North Wales have benefited from the evidence obtained by the inquiry to help prove their compensation claims. In other cases this evidence is withhold by the police because it is subject to the rules of Public Interest Immunity. A.C.A.L. says the rules which allow lawyers access to police evidence should be relaxed otherwise those acting for the abusers, who are allowed to see all these documents, are in a better position than the victims lawyers

Compensation claims arising out of the tribunal cases and others all around the country are likely to run into Millions of pounds, but A.C.A.L says no amount of money will over compensate trio victims for the abuse they suffered from, which has ruined their fives.

The Court of Appeal is due to look at compensation in February of this year when hopefully it will increase damages by two or even three fold. The problem is that there is little or no precedent to help the courts decide how much these types of cases are worth. ACAL hope to be able to establish useful precedents which will properly compensate the victims of childhood abuse.

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