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This will enable SDE to obtain the treatment that she needs to treat her mental health difficulties caused directly by her father. This was exactly twice the amount that SDE had advised that she would accept at the outset of the claim. Shortly before trial, however, an offer was received from him and, following negotiation, the claim settled for a six figure sum.
#A family secret maureen wood trial#
The claim proceeded and for a while it looked as though the claim was going to have to go to trial because of BWX’s lack of engagement with the claim. It was argued that because of these mental health difficulties SDE’s career had suffered resulting in a loss of earnings. In SDE’s case, she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and depression as a result of her father’s assaults upon her. In these types of claims we rely upon medical evidence from expert psychiatrists to comment upon the effects of abuse upon our clients. This meant that SDE won her claim against him and what remained was to determine the value of it. BWX failed to do so and as a result a successful application was made for his Defence to be struck out entirely. BWX then produced a document known as a Defence in which again he protested his innocence.Īs part of a claim for compensation the parties are required to comply with court deadlines. Following the re-trial BWX was convicted again and sentenced to 17 years in prison to take into account the two years he had previously spent in prison for his crimes.ĭuring this time, SDE’S case for compensation against her father was placed on hold pending the outcome of the re-trial but upon conclusion of the criminal case the civil claim was restored at court. The Crown Prosecution took the case to a re-trial and as a result SDE was forced to undergo the entire process again and bravely took the decision to do so and give evidence on the stand for a second time. Shortly after this, in 2014, BWX appealed his criminal conviction and was successful due to an error made by the Judge in the criminal trial rendering the criminal conviction unsafe. BWX, however, ignored this which left no choice but to issue the claim at court immediately to protect SDE’s claim as she was strictly speaking out of time to bring it because she was over the age of 21 years old. Accompanying this was an early offer of settlement because SDE wished to conclude the case as soon as possible considering the distress that she had already suffered during the process of the criminal investigation and subsequent trial.
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In this child abuse case, an investigation into BWX’s assets from the outset revealed that he owned a number of properties and was in the financial position to be able to pay compensation to SDE for what he had done to her, in addition to her legal costs.Īs in all cases, a letter was sent to BWX setting out in detail the allegations of SDE’s claim. Whilst many people have a claim against their abuser directly therefore, unfortunately, many are unlikely to proceed because of the limited amount of assets that an abuser may have.
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It is important from the outset to establish the extent of a Defendant’s assets when pursuing an individual because, unlike an organisation, they are extremely unlikely to have insurance to cover such a claim.
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This was later increased to 19 years following an appeal by the prosecution.Īfter the police investigation had concluded SDE approached BBK to investigate a claim against her father for compensation for what he had done to her. A police investigation pursued and in 2014 SDE’s father was convicted of offences against her and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Many years later she approached police and disclosed what had happened to her as a child. Individuals and family Father pays six figure sum to daughter for over a decade of abuseīetween the ages of three to 15 years old SDE was seriously sexually abused by her father BWX. Government authorities and institutionsġ. Read our successful Child Abuse case studies by clicking on one of the categories below: 1. If you need to make a claim for child abuse, it may be helpful to read cases similar to yours so that you have an idea of what to expect.