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	Police Close Investigation into Child Abuse at Warwickshire Home By Adam Aspinall Sunday Mercury May 10, 2009 http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2009/05/10/police-close-investigation- into-child-abuse-at-warwickshire-home-66331-23584470/ POLICE have closed their investigation into abuse at a notorious Midland orphanage. Scores of men and women have claimed they suffered attacks while at Father Hudson's Home in Coleshill, Warwickshire, from the 1940s to the 1980s. Last year, the Sunday Mercury revealed a catalogue of shocking new allegations from 11 people of sexual and physical abuse by priests and nuns at Father Hudson's. We passed the details on to Warwickshire Police, and MP Mike O'Brien, whose north Warwickshire constituency contains the care home which shut in 1988, backed demands for police to investigate. But last night a spokesman for Warwickshire Police said: "We are no longer investigating the allegations into Father Hudson's Home. The investigation has been closed." Only one priest has ever been convicted of abusing children at the home. Eric Taylor was found guilty of sexually abusing boys and girls from 1957 to 1965. He was arrested when his terrified victims came forward in the 1990s. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1998 but died in jail, at the age of 80, in 2001. Now, though, Midland legal experts say there is fresh hope for the victims to achieve justice through the civil courts following a landmark High Court ruling last week. Judges permitted a former Birmingham solicitor to pursue his claim for £5 million damages against the Roman Catholic Church for abuse he says he suffered as a child in Preston, Lancashire. Patrick Raggett, 50, said he was abused by Jesuit priest Father Michael Spencer at Preston Catholic College, which closed in 1978, and that this had ruined his career. It is by far the biggest claim of its kind in Britain, and comes despite the fact that 35 years have passed since the abuse ended – and nine years since the priest died. The college governors argued that the case should not proceed because it was outside the legal time limit. But Mrs Justice Swift, ruled that the case could go ahead to a full trial, leading legal experts in Britain to speculate that the Roman Catholic Church in the UK could now face a slew of US-style compensation claims over child abuse. Jonathan Peacock, who specialises in child litigation cases for Irwin Mitchell solicitors in Birmingham, said: "Mr Raggett's case has not changed the existing law. "But it does demonstrate that the courts are willing to see justice done and in exceptional circumstances will allow very old cases to go ahead where they can still be dealt with fairly to all concerned." The new allegations of abuse at Father Hudson's home included a 67-year-old man who broke his 50-year silence to claim he was raped by a priest. Another woman told how she believed her brother drank himself to death because of his painful memories of abuse. Rose Connolly, 53, welcomed Mr Raggett's success. She said: "This is fantastic news for Mr Raggett and hopefully it means we may now be able to find justice for the years of abuse we suffered in the home."
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