Case Study - Child CICA Claim, Dec 2024

The applicant was subjected to a period of physical and sexual abuse by her parents when she was a child.

Her father raped her on numerous occasions over several years and her mother would burn her with cigarettes and beat her. 

Matters came to light when she was 10 years old and she was removed from their custody and placed into care.

The abuse was reported to the police by her social worker when she was 13 but her parents had by this time fled abroad.

Whilst a police report could not be located, there was sufficient disclosure of the abuse within her personal records to persuade the CICA that a crime of violence had indeed taken place.

As a result of what happened to her, she developed a number of serious, long term mental health conditions including a recurrent depressive disorder, anxiety and drug addiction which necessitated several admissions into psychiatric care and was never able to work.

Paragraph 34 of the Scheme states that ‘Where a person has sustained a mental injury as a result of a sexual assault, they will be entitled to an injury payment for whichever of the sexual assault or the mental injury would give rise to the highest payment under the tariff.’

Medical evidence was submitted in support of her claim and, in December 2024, she was given the maximum award available for mental injury, together with full past and future loss of earnings, which totalled £313,073.