In my experience it is only in the last ten years or so that we have really woken up to the fact that children have been and are physically sexually abused.
There is no stereotype, but what we do know is that abusers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and that the abuse can take place in all manner of settings.
Tragically it would seem from the cases that I have had that frequently the abuse could have been prevented or at the very least nipped in the bud. Children do complain but all too frequently they have been ignored, perhaps, through ignorance, the turning of a blind eye, disbelief, or complicity. Hopefully as result of victims coming forward and bravely making their voices heard the barriers of prejudice and ignorance are coming down, and that through greater understanding in the police, government, and society as a whole the tragedies of the past will not be forever repeated. There is still it seems to me a long way to go. The work of victim survivors’ groups and organisations such as Child Line are to be applauded.
So what is my take from a lawyer’s perspective on “historic abuse cases”?
The usual scenario is that the victim was abused as a child, when vulnerable in every sense of the term, who then suppresses their memories of what happened. There are invariably feelings of guilt, shame and embarrassment. The history of abuse is often kept hidden from spouse and family. Their memories of the abuse are suppressed and often very effectively. The mask, however, sometimes slips through what we call the triggering of memories. A common experience is for the unpleasant memories to be rekindled as a consequence of watching a television programme, or reading an article in a newspaper or, perhaps, through being contacted as a result of a police investigation.
The “triggering” can have a dramatic effect. A victim may actually suffer a nervous breakdown and become very ill. Against such a background a victim will seek advice which culminates in them consulting a solicitor.
As a result of this rather circuitous route the solicitor has to form an opinion as to whether there is a viable case to pursue. Leaving to one side the issues of liability and causation for the moment, the question every lawyer has to ask him/herself is if a claim is going to be made will it fail because it is “statute barred”? This is frequently the hardest question and most difficult aspect of a case, and I would refer you to my other entries on my blog for further details.
If a claim is to succeed not only does limitation have to be overcome I also need to prove the abuse and also that it harmed the victim. Common sense says that abuse causes harm, but we still have to prove it, and it is not always very easy. The greater the passage of time between the abuse and the victim coming forward the harder it is to prove, and it maybe impossible to do so.
To prove the case I need evidence. This could involve tracking down witnesses, perhaps, for example other victims. It may also mean looking for records. The client will be asked to help because they were there, and not the solicitor.
To prove the damage it will be mean that a medical report has to be prepared, and this would be usually be by a psychiatrist. It is their job to tell us whether the abuse has resulted in any recognised medical illness or condition. This in turn enables us to work out quantum, or in simple terms the amount of compensation you might be entitled to.