Revised guidance that could see abuse victims denied compensation branded ‘despicable’
Sexually abused children as young as 12 could still be denied compensation under revised official guidelines on the grounds they had “consented”, it has been reported.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) launched a review earlier this year amid concerns that victims of child grooming gangs were being refused payments, even when their attacker had been jailed.
Justice Secretary David Lidington told MPs last week that CICA’s internal guidelines were undergoing an urgent re-examination to ensure there was no risk a child could be disqualified because they had been “groomed” into giving consent.
But while the legal age of consent is 16, the Guardian reported that a draft of the revised guidelines stated child abuse victims could still be denied compensation on the grounds that “consent ‘in fact’ is different from consent ‘in law’.”
“The scheme recognises that there may be situations where a person aged under 16 has ‘in fact’ consented to sexual activity. Where the sexual activity is truly of the applicant’s free will no crime of violence will have occurred,” the draft is reported to state.
It goes on to indicate that in some cases children under the age of 12 could be considered to have given their consent.
It states: “Where the child was 12 or under when the incident happened, we will presume that the child did not consent in fact unless the evidence to the contrary is very clear.”
Sarah Champion (pictured), the Labour MP for Rotherham, who raised concerns about the CICA guidelines in the Commons, said the revised version was “despicable” and urged Mr Lidington to intervene.
“It’s basically saying that the state doesn’t believe you, that you’re likely to be a liar on this and that is entirely the wrong message to send out,” she told the Guardian.
“It’s making it very clear that there are civil servants making subjective judgments and this guidance is not working on the assumption that both the judge and the child is telling the truth.
“It’s working on the assumption that it’s unlikely that a crime of violence happened and these are all the things you need to bear in mind when you’re validating that assumption. It’s entirely the wrong way round.”
CICA said it was engaging with victims’ support groups and relevant charities to ensure the revised guidance was “as robust as it possibly can be”.
“Child sexual abuse is abhorrent. Our guidelines are designed to make sure that controlling and abusive behaviour is taken into account when handling compensation applications,” a spokesman said.
“We want to be sure that we never get these decisions wrong. That’s why we are reviewing our staff guidance to make sure that we identify every instance where grooming could be a factor.”
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