| 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. |
