Child Abuse Claims: Victims Facing Uphill Battle for Compensation

By Francis Higney
The Post
February 9, 2012

http://www.postonline.co.uk/post/analysis/2144645/child-abuse-claims-victims-facing-uphill-battle-compensation

Local authority, church and legal expenses insurers have a role to play in sexual abuse litigation. However, government reform and ?a recent legal ruling may see this change.

By Francis Higney

Few crimes tug at the heart strings more than child sex abuse, with harrowing cases being aired in the media almost every day.

Last month, Nigel Leat, 51, was jailed indefinitely for abusing children at Hillside First School in Weston-super-Mare. Leat, of Bloomfield Road in Bristol, admitted 36 sexual offences at Bristol Crown Court in May 2011.

A serious case review was commissioned after Leat's 2010 arrest at the instigation of the North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board. The review identified 20 pupils who were witnesses or victims of abuse by Leat, describing the failure of the school management as "lamentable". The report revealed that 30 incidents were witnessed by staff but only 11 reported to the headteacher, Chris Hood, who failed to pass the concerns to the local education authority.