Limitation
The High Court has allowed a £5m claim over alleged child sex abuse that happened 35 years ago to proceed.
In Raggett v Society of Jesus Trust, Mrs Justice Swift ruled that the limitation period in s 11 of the Limitation Act 1980 should be set aside, and allowed the claim to proceed on the grounds it would be equitable to do so in the circumstances.
Patrick Raggett, a former City solicitor, claims he suffered frequent and persistent child sex abuse by a Jesuit priest at his school, Father Spencer, now deceased.
He claims to have lived in a state of denial for years until a discussion about religion in 2005 triggered memories of his time at Preston Catholic College in the 1970s. He says he suffered low self-esteem, depression, heavy drinking, under-achievement in his career and difficulties forming relationships as a result of the abuse.
Jonathan Wheeler, partner, Bolt, Burdon and Kemp, says Raggetts’s case is one of the first to benefit from the House of Lords’ ruling last year in A v Hoare and others, in which Wheeler acted, where the House of Lords ruled that the time limit could be extended where it was in the interests of justice to do so.
A v Hoare overturned a Law Lords’ ruling, in Stubbings v Webb, that a strict six-year limitation period should apply in assault cases.
“This is an interesting indication of how applying A v Hoare is going to assist claimants in these types of cases,” says Wheeler.
“What we are seeing are well-funded defendants such as the Catholic Church using their vast resources to bring [limitation] up time and time again, and to stifle claims. It is excellent in this case that the judge understood the problems claimants have in coming to terms with what has happened to them.”
