Successful abuse at school claim
For expert guidance on recovering compensation for abuse contact our caring and compassionate team for a free case review and details of No Win, No Fee funding.
We were contacted by G, a young man in his 20s, in relation to an abuse at school claim that he wanted to pursue after being abused by a teacher.
Shortly into G’s secondary school career he came to the attention of his form teacher. This teacher paid G particular attention and gave him preferential treatment, including getting him off punishments, allowing him to call him by his first name and engaging in informal chat and banter. G had found starting at secondary school very difficult and had struggled with friendships. This made him feel isolated and lonely, and his teacher exploited that.
Shortly after G turned 12 his teacher approached his parents and told them that he was struggling with some elements of his schoolwork. He said he was running after-school tutoring sessions for pupils and suggested that G would benefit from going along. Wanting to support their son’s education, his parents accepted this offer. G therefore started attending “study club” which took place at this teacher’s home.
However, the “tutoring” was merely a cover for this teacher’s perverted activities. This individual took his pupil, a vulnerable 12-year-old, into a separate room where he was stripped naked, sexually assaulted, and physically chastised.
This abuse continued for years. G suffered immense feelings of guilt, shame, and confusion.
A decade later, he was able to confide in a girlfriend who encouraged him to seek counselling and during the course of the counselling was advised to report the abuse to the police. He therefore bravely disclosed what had happened to him to the police who then began their formal investigations. The teacher was interviewed under caution, charged and bailed. While on bail he took his own life and therefore never faced justice for what he had done.
G ultimately reached out to our specialist team of abuse lawyers in the hope of finding some closure for what he had been through.
Elizabeth Duncan agreed to help him and bring a compensation claim on a “no win, no fee” basis.
The claim was not straightforward. Not only were we outside the usual time limit for bringing a claim for events that happened in childhood, but because his teacher had not faced justice there were no police or court records of his conviction that could be relied on. Further, while the law says that wrongs committed in the course of a person’s employment are the responsibility of that person’s employer (a legal doctrine called vicarious liability) given that the abuse had taken place off school premises and outside school hours during a non-official school activity this made vicarious liability difficult to establish.
Undaunted, Elizabeth gathered what evidence was still available, including a few police records and some medical records. A formal letter of claim was sent to the local authority that had operated the school. While the local authority denied that the abuse had taken place in the course of this teacher’s employment, they were ultimately willing to reach an out-of-court settlement which G accepted.
After the claim was concluded G said that the process had been positive and had helped him gain a sense of closure after all he had been through. The compensation will allow him to receive the private psychiatric treatment he needs in order to be able to live his life to his full potential.
If you would like a specialist solicitor to assess your abuse claim then contact our free confidential helpline on FREEPHONE 0333 888 0445 or send an email to us at [email protected]