Alison Lobb, partner and head of civil litigation at Liverpool solicitors Morecrofts and a member of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, on the “Lotto rapist� ruling
THE widely publicised case of Mrs A versus Iorwarth Hoare could open the doors to thousands of abuse victims to claim redress.
The House of Lords ruling that Mrs A can claim against sex attacker Iorwarth Hoare, despite the fact that her case was brought more than six years after her attack, marks a major upheaval in the law relating to limitation.
Limitation for assault claims stood at six years, which meant that claims could not be brought more than six years after the assault occurred, or after the claimant’s 18th birthday, if at the time of the assault they were a child.
The House of Lords also heard four other claims, involving victims of abuse at schools and institutions, who had also lost their claims because they were adjudged to be out of time.
This decision will allow them to seek compensation and should give them the option to sue the managers of those facilities directly, for assaults perpetrated by their employees, rather than having to prove the complicated issue of whether the managers were negligent, which is the route that they have had to follow in the past, simply because in those cases the court had more discretion over time limits.
We could now see a flood of claims coming into the courts. There are many claimants who haven’t disclosed their past experiences until many years after the event when it is often too late to claim compensation. This decision will open the doors for them and for many others whose cases have been effectively on hold.