Church pays damages to woman forcibly drugged in children’s home

The BBC reports that a settlement has been made to a woman, who alleged that she was forcibly drugged and sexually abused whilst in the care of a church run children’s home. Teresa Cooper, 43, has spent the past 18 years trying to expose what she said happened in the home in the 1980s.

However the Church has not accepted liability.

The writer has has handled several cases from the 1980’s involving the forcible administration of drugs to children in homes and in hospital. The effect of the drugs on the children was terrifying, although it was not clear what the long term effects had been, and whether those effects were physical or psychological. Drugs such as haloperidol were used to sedate troubled children, but there was always the risk that this left those children extremely vulnerable to abuse. Moreover the long term effects of the drugs were unclear.

Such cases are quite unusual in the writer’s experience, and there are limitation problems in pursuing such claims years after the event, where there is no criminal conviction or strong corroborative evidence. However Ms. Cooper’s persistence has obviously resulted in some justice for her.