Victims of abuse test six-year limit for suing over assault

Victims of abuse test six-year limit for suing over assault

· Sex attacks in childhood highlight legal loophole
· Four cases, and that of 'lottery rapist', go to Lords

* Clare Dyer, legal editor
* The Guardian
* Monday November 5 2007

Daniel was 14 when he was sexually abused by a teacher at his south London school. Other boys had also been abused by Derek Harding, who was jailed for indecent assault in 2001. Daniel had been doing well but after the attacks he truanted and left school with one GCSE. He told no one about the abuse until 1999, nearly 12 years after the last incident. The effect on his life has been disastrous; he has attempted suicide, been in psychiatric hospitals, and suffered depression. Now aged 34, he has not worked since 1998.

Yet the appeal court ruled that he could not sue Wandsworth council, which was responsible for the school, since the teacher's actions were deliberate assaults and claims for assaults had to be brought within six years of occurrence, or six years after the victim's 18th birthday, if later.

Daniel's case, and those of three other men sexually abused as children by teachers, are now before the Lords. The law lords are hearing the cases this week along with the case brought against a serial rapist, Iorworth Hoare, by a 78-year-old woman attacked by him in an attempted rape 19 years ago. Hoare only became worth suing after he bought a lottery ticket on day release from jail, and scooped £7m.

The "lottery rapist" case has had huge publicity, but is a one-off. On the other hand, the cases of the four men mentioned reveal a glaring loophole in the law which has allowed public bodies to escape liability for the actions of paedophile care workers and teachers. The rule that bars victims from suing their abusers more than six years after they reach the age of 18 also protects the abusers' employers from vicarious liability. If the victims had been injured through negligence by a school, the courts would have the discretion to allow a claim years later. But as the injuries arise from a deliberate assault, a strict six year, non-extendable limit applies.

Daniel, named as Y in the court case, said of his history: "I tried to block it out and carry on as normal. I experienced a lot of confusion about why it had happened - was I in the wrong? I had problems with depression and nervous breakdowns."

In all the cases the courts could only reject the claims, due to a Lords ruling in 1993 in the case of Stubbings v Webb. Lesley Stubbings fought for the right to sue her adoptive father, whom she said had sexually abused her between the ages of three and 14. She won in the appeal court but the Lords held that her claim was blocked by the six-year time limit.

The appeal court granted permission for the five present cases to go to the Lords so the legislators could consider if they could do anything "to rescue the law from its incoherent state without the intervention of parliament".

In 2001 the Law Commission recommended that the courts should be given discretion to allow assault claims outside the time limit. In 2002 the government accepted the recommendation, but no bill has been introduced.