Frances Gibb, Legal Editor
One woman’s quest for justice against the so-called Lotto rapist ends in victory today, with a court ruling that paves the way for thousands of sex abuse victims to sue their attackers for compensation, The Times has learnt.
In a landmark ruling, five law lords are expected to sweep away the current bar on historic claims being brought for sexual assault. Until now victims have been precluded by law from bringing a claim more than six years after an attack or, in child abuses case, more than six years after reaching majority at 18.
Their ruling now means that a woman known only as Mrs A can seek to claim compensation for attempted rape in Leeds in 1988 from her convicted attacker, Iorworth Hoare, who subsequently scooped £7 million on the lottery.
The much wider implication also paves the way for thousands of actions by victims of child sexual abuse to claim against their attackers or more likely their employers, such as local authorities if they were in care at the time of the attack.
David Greenwood, the solicitor for Kevin Young – another key case heard along side that of Mrs A – estimates that there could be as many as 6000 child sex abuse cases in the pipeline.
The law lords are expected to to rule that in future, claims for sexual assault should be brought within three years, in line with other civil claims for damages. But at the same time, they are expected to say that courts should have discretion to extend the period to permit older claims, whereas now the six-year bar is fixed.
Mrs A, 78, a former teacher, is expected to go back to the High Court to seek the right to bring a claim over the attack by Hoare in Roundhay Park, Leeds, in 1988. She received only £5,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board after the brutal attack 19 years ago. The case, she says, is “not about money, but about a just result”.
Hoare had not been worth suing for compensation until he won £7 million with a Lotto Extra ticket while on day release from prison in 2004 where he was serving a life sentence for the attack on Mrs A and six other women he had assaulted previously. Her later attempts to win the right to sue him in the High Court and Court of Appeal failed and she was ordered to pay Hoare £100,000 in legal fees because of the six-year time bar under the Limitation Act 1980.
Months after his win Hoare was released on parole, and lives in a house estimated to be worth £700,000 near Newcastle upon Tyne. Damien Crosse, a partner at DLA Piper and Mrs A’s solicitor, said at the time of the Lords’ hearing last November: “We want to see a change in the law to ensure Mrs A is fairly compensated for the damage and suffering she has had to endure as as a result of being attacked by Mr Hoare.
“My client and others like her should be able to gain justice through the civil courts and there is clearly an anomaly in the law as it stands that is preventing them from doing so.”
Kevin Young, another key case, is seeking compensation for being sexually assaulted by Neville Husband while the former was serving a short sentence at Medomsley Detention Centre in 1977.
Husband, who became a church minister after leaving the Prison Service, was jailed after admitting a series of horrific sex attacks on teenage boys.
Mr Young, of York, was one of the boys targeted by Husband and in April 2003 he lodged a claim against the Home Office, which was responsible for the detention centre. But it failed because of the lapse of time involved.
David Greenwood, his solicitor, of Jordans law firm in Wakefield, said: “This delay in speaking out is caused by the nature of the abuse itself. I hope that the law lords are able to see that the law needs to change, to achieve justice for these deserving claimants.”
Sarah Erwin-Jones, partner on the social care team at Browne Jacobson solicitor, which acted in three of the five appeals before the law lords, has said that a change in the law would have far-reaching implications.
In old cases where assaults were serious, the more likely it would be that courts would allow claims against convicted abusers to proceed, even when brought outside any time bar.