A clever piece of detective work by us wins CICA compensation for a victim of historic abuse
Real life case study of how we recovered CICA compensation for victim of historic abuse and overcame evidential obstacles by using clever detective work. If you are looking for experienced solicitors who go the extra mile to deal with your historic abuse claim then call us on 0333 888 0446 or send an email in complete confidence to [email protected]
Our popular CICA Helpline was contacted by a woman who had suffered historic abuse as a child.
Her mother had been unable to care for her properly and she was the subject of interventions from Social Services from a young age. While she was a still a child of primary school age her mother began a relationship with a neighbour. This neighbour was invited to “punish” our client and these “punishments” took the form of serious and repeated sexual assaults. She was eventually removed from her mother’s care and looked after by foster parents.
In the mid 1990s, our client felt able to confide in her foster family and tell them about the horrific sexual abuse she had suffered. With the help of her foster family and social worker, she reported the abuse to the police. However, unfortunately the perpetrator could not be traced and no prosecution was possible.
Our client thought there was nothing else she could do to achieve justice, but having heard about our work on behalf of abuse victims online she decided to get in touch with us, calling our free CICA Helpline. Specialist abuse lawyer Elizabeth Duncan suggested making an application to the government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority CICA scheme and agreed to do this on a No Win, No Fee basis.
The CICA is a government scheme designed to compensate the innocent victims of violent crime, including abuse. Where the offences occur in childhood, and the police are also involved before the person turns 18, applications must generally be made by the applicant’s 20th birthday. Our client was in her 30s by the time she contacted us, but Elizabeth felt confident that the usual deadline could be overcome and therefore an application was submitted to the CICA as quickly as possible.
Elizabeth obtained our client’s medical records which showed that her childhood abuse had caused long-running psychological difficulty. These records were used to support the argument for an extension to the usual deadline for making the CICA application.
It is a requirement of the CICA scheme that offences are reported to the police and the onus is on the applicant to prove this. Unfortunately the police could not locate the records of their earlier investigation. However Elizabeth obtained her client’s Social Services records and found within them a handwritten note from a social worker describing how she had accompanied our client to her police interview. This note included the name of the officer and the police station.
This clever piece of detective work enabled Elizabeth to satisfy the requirements of the CICA scheme. It led directly to the CICA making an offer of compensation which our client accepted. She was delighted with the outcome, saying she felt a huge sense of relief that an official government body had “heard and believed” her. She said that she felt it was an important step to being able to move on with her life.