The Catholic Church and British local authorities have been accused of using a legal loophole to avoid paying compensation to victims of child sex abuse.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, a government agency, has denied some children financial settlements because it said the victims had “consented” to the abuse, a group of charities has warned.
Lawyers representing victims have warned that this line of defence is becoming increasingly common.
One case that the charity Victim Support brought attention to involved a 12-year-old girl who was given alcohol, brought into woodland and then sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old male. The girl was denied compensation because she had “voluntarily” gone into the woods with the man.
“No child ever gives their ‘consent’ to being abused, and the increased use of this line of defence, although still quite rare, is worrying,” said Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England. "I have contacted the Ministry of Justice previously and again recently about this issue and the Government should look urgently at what can be done to tackle it.”
The Sunday Telegraph reported that it had seen documents regarding two cases where the defence was used. A claimant who was raped at the age of 15 was told by lawyers representing the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark that his abuse "actually occurred in the context of a consensual relationship (albeit one the claimant in retrospect now appears to regret)".
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The victim said "I was below the legal age of consent anyway and there's a grooming element to that kind of situation. It was totally disregarded and it made me feel really small." The case was finally settled, with the Catholic Church paying out £80,000.
Dino Nocivelli, a specialist child abuse solicitor at Bolt Burdon Kemp told Kent Live: “It is time for the church to practise what they preach and to admit their failings, to take account of the damage this has caused to the lives of far too many children and lastly to apologise for the abuse.”
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Southwark said that the church does not comment on individual cases out of respect for the claimant’s privacy. He added that the Archdiocese “supports the right of anyone who has suffered harm to seek compensation.”
Since the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) was launched in 2012, approximately 700 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse have had their claims rejected.
CH_GOROG on August 21st, 2017 at 16:37 UTC »
Did anyone actually read this article, and recognize the title is completely wrong? The Catholic church did NOT claim that the victims consented. According to the article, they've been accused of trying to find loopholes to avoid paying victims (although there doesn't seem to be any follow-up to this), and it's a government institution attempting to use the "consent" argument:
Also:
I hope a mod actually corrects this.
MuninTheRaven on August 21st, 2017 at 16:09 UTC »
What exactly is the link between the Catholic Church and CICA in these cases? The article states that CICA [a government agency] is denying the claims because the victims consented -- is that the argument of the Church, which the agency found compelling, or is that simply the findings of the agency itself?
Edit: I've done a bit more digging and it seems like this issue might be entirely on the agency itself, with minimal involvement from the Church. This article from The Telegraph, which to my knowledge initially reported on the denied compensation, states that the agency "uses a different set of criteria to decide whether victims are eligible for compensation" and "it considers consent as a question of fact, and this determines eligibility for compensation." The guidelines on applying for compensation do not explicitly reference sexual consent, but state that the agency will collect "confirmation from the police and/or witnesses that your behaviour did not contribute to the incident in which your injuries were received" and will consider the victim's conduct leading up to the incident to determine if they are blameless.
This is a horrible, horrible system, but it appears to be entirely governmental.
Edit 2: From the CICA webpage on sexual abuse: "If a person is under the legal consenting age and gives consent it is still classed as child rape." I'm not sure where their new defense is coming from.
Edit 3: Just wanted to clarify that a Catholic Archdiocese did try to use the 'consent' defense in at least one case, as noted in the article. However, the brunt of the article is focusing on the CICA, not the Catholic Church. It's also worth noting that the case was later settled for £80,000, which suggests that it wasn't handled by CICA (which has a maximum payout of £44,000). What the Church did was horrible and indefensible. The article is not focusing on that, though. It's pointing to CICA mishandling these cases, independent of the Church.
STUMPOFWAR on August 21st, 2017 at 14:48 UTC »
The cover up is so stupid. If they treated these people (victims & pervs) like they should, it would increase the prestige of the church. Wouldn't any reasonable person think better of any religious or civic organization that policed itself and took care of the innocent? They made themselves hypocritics.