Sexual abuse

A v The Archbishop of Birmingham [2005] EWHC 1361

A victim of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic priest was awarded over £700,000 damages. In an article in the Solicitors Journal of 28 October, Glenn Miller, the solicitor for the defendant, responded to a comment by the claimant’s solicitors after the case: ‘We very much hope that the Church will now offer realistic compensation to all those who have been sexually abused by a Catholic priest, so that victims and their families can be spared the trauma of giving evidence.’ Mr Miller commented first that ‘realistic compensation’ would be agreed and paid when the claimant’s demand for compensation was similarly ‘realistic’. This claim was pleaded in excess of £1.9m. Second, while unusually high, the award represented nothing new in the determination of damages for sexual abuse claims or in the calculation of losses for such claims or indeed any personal injury claim. Most of the award was made up of loss of earnings compensation, determined by the facts of the case on the evidence presented to the court. If the court has the necessary evidence, it can carry out the calculation of the compensation to be awarded based on likely earnings and multiples found in the Ogden Tables. If the evidence is not available, the court may be forced to award a lump sum, doing the best it can.