Claim compensation for church abuse: Specialist solicitors with a track record of success.
We specialise in claiming compensation for church abuse. If having read this case study of our latest success you would like guidance on making a claim yourself then contact our free legal helpline in confidence by phone on 0333 888 0445 or by email at [email protected]
We were contacted by J, a man who is now 50 years old. He had been raised in various homes run by the Jesus Army, an evangelical Christian movement founded in the late 1960s.
J, together with his family, lived in a number of communal homes run by the organisation. Unfortunately he suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of various senior members of the organisation between 1977 and 1981. He was groped under the guise of “rough and tumble play”, and in bed, by various members of the church. He was also forced to masturbate one senior member.
As well as frequent sexual abuse J also suffered regular beatings with canes and sticks. His wrist was broken and on one occasion he was dropped into a bathtub of scalding water as a punishment. He was told he was “the Devil’s child” and everything that happened was God’s will and that he had brought it upon himself.
Unsurprisingly, J suffered psychological harm as a result of the abuse he was subjected to. He experienced feelings of depression, anxiety and worthlessness. He had very low self-esteem and suffered disordered eating in the form of fasting and purging. He struggled to sleep and had bouts of rage.
In his 40s he finally felt able to report the abuse to the police. Unfortunately no charges were brought as the members of the church who had abused him had either died or couldn’t be traced. He felt helpless and that he would never find any kind of justice for what he had suffered as a child.
It was against this background that J decided to give our free legal helpline a call.
We listened to what had happened and offered to make a claim for compensation for church abuse on his behalf, working on a No Win, No Fee basis.
There were a number of legal hurdles that had to be overcome for the compensation claim to succeed. Firstly, there was no criminal conviction we could rely on to prove what had happened. Secondly, compensation claims arising from events in childhood must usually be made before the person’s 21st birthday and J was many years past that. The court does have discretion to extend that time limit, but where the perpetrators of abuse are no longer alive or traceable it can be extremely challenging.
Despite these difficulties, we were able to achieve an out of court settlement of J’s compensation claim for church abuse. J received compensation and achieved a sense of resolution from knowing that justice had finally been done.