Council pay out £1 million to Merkland Care Home victims

THE number of sex abuse victims at a former council-run care home is more than double the number previously thought.

Dumfries and Galloway Council yesterday revealed it has now paid out almost £1 million to 47 people who were abused by Peter Harley at Merkland Care Home between 1977 and 1982.

But the £20,000-a-head payment has been described by one of the victims as “pennies” when compared to the trauma they’ve been through.

The woman said: “It’s not a lot of money to receive after what happened to us.

“People who were at Merkland have killed themselves in the past because they couldn’t live with it.

“It’s very hard to deal with every time the Merkland thing is brought up, but I’d advise anyone who was abused by Harley to come forward and claim the money they are entitled to.

“The council should have apologised to us one by one, so £1 million isn’t much for them to pay for failing us in the past.

“It’s pennies compared to what we went through at Merkland.”

Dumfries and Galloway Council agreed to make the payments to 20 former residents last year. The other 27 have since come forward.

Harley was jailed for 15 years in 1996 after admitting 17 charges of sexually abusing and assaulting young boys.

In December 2000 he received a further sentence of eight years at Cardiff Crown Court for abusing seven young males from Dumfries and Galloway who he had taken on holiday with him to Wales.

He was released from prison in 2006 after serving only 10 years of his sentence and is now living in the Cardiff area, where he remains on the Sex Offenders Register.

Merkland victims were issued an apology and a cash payment after a series of legal failings prevented any of them receiving compensation from the council’s insurers in 2003, when their claims were dismissed as time-barred.

A report to Dumfries and Galloway Council this week revealed that a total of 47 former residents of Merkland had their cases independently evaluated and deemed entitled to receive the £20,000.

The report went on: “The lives of those abused have been irreparably damaged and the council’s reputation has been tarnished.”

The council agreed to set aside £800,000 to pay out, but the total cost amounts to £940,000.

The additional finances have been met from existing resources within the social work committee budget.

After the full council meeting yesterday, a spokesman said: “The committee thanked the director of social work services and all other staff involved on the way that they have dealt with this sensitive matter.

“It was noted that there is always a slim possibility that additional adult survivors could come forward at some time in the future and that these cases would also be dealt with sensitively and sympathetically.”