A young man was sexually abused by a family ‘friend’ when visiting the man’s house to play computer games with his cousin.
Although the abuser threatened to harm our client’s family if he informed anyone, he eventually found the courage to tell his family. As a result, the abuser was prosecuted and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Because the abuser had no money to pay his victim compensation, we suggested that an application was made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, the CICA.
We made the application on a No Win, No Fee basis. This meant that if compensation was not awarded he would not have to pay legal costs.
CICA compensation of £16,500 offered
When the application was submitted the CICA made our client an offer of £16,500.
We advised him this was not enough and asked the CICA to review of their decision. In support of the review we obtained a report from a psychiatrist. He diagnosed a severe and permanently disabling mental injury. He also said that our client would never be able to work as a result of his abuse.
As a result of the review the CICA increased their offer to £22,000. However this was still grossly inadequate and we recommended that a formal appeal should be pursued for an award of compensation in the region of £180,000.
The Authority accepted the injury was severe and permanent but claimed that due to our client’s pre-existing learning difficulties he would not have worked anyway. They rated the claim as worth no more than £27,000.
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