Criminal Injury

Children’s home abuse victim awarded CICA compensation 40 years later

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Rebecca Pick

Senior Litigation Executive

1 min read time
11 Oct 2022

A man who “kept quiet” for decades about the abuse he suffered at a London children’s home is urging others to come forward after finally being awarded compensation.

David Harris, now aged 52, says he was groomed and exploited for years after he was placed in the council run home, Grafton Close in Hounslow, West London.

He was sent there in 1981 aged 11 and says the home’s manager, who has since died, physically and sexually abused him over several years.

After contacting Hudgell Solicitors’ criminal injuries team Mr Harris was initially offered a small, three-figure-sum, by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) for the abuse he suffered

Hudgell Solicitors’ CICA expert, litigation executive Rebecca Pick, applied for the compensation award to be reviewed on behalf of Mr Harris and he was eventually awarded compensation ten-times higher than the original offer.

Mr Harris said the result had been life changing, “I still feel overwhelmed as it’s recognition for what I’ve been through; I finally feel I have been listened to,” he said.

Read David’s story: Children’s home abuse victim awarded CICA compensation 40 years later and urges others to come forward

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Rebecca Pick is Senior Litigation Executive at Hudgell Solicitors specialising in Criminal Injury and Military Injury.
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Children’s home abuse victim awarded CICA compensation 40 years later

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