Scottish council pays out nearly £1 million to victims of abuse

The BBC reports that Dumfries and Galloway Council has agreed to make compensation payments of £20,000 payments to people identified as having suffered abuse of a residential care worker, convicted of sexual abuse. He was gaoled in 1996.

The abuser’s crimes occurred whilst he was in charge of Merkland Children’s Home in Moffat between 1977 and 1982.

Apparently these payments are “ex gratia” in other words they are made without any admission of liability. Some of the victims did attempt to sue the local authority, but their claims were dismissed in court in 2003 as time-barred.

The position of the Scottish courts (at least in 2003) in relation to limitation is different from that of courts in England and Wales now. In the case of A v Hoare 2008 the House of Lords decided that victims who were past their 24th birthday could sue their abusers (and potentially the employers of such abuser where they worked in care homes) in exceptional circumstances.  However in that case the House of Lord was considering the Limitation Act 1980. It is understood that Scotland has different limitation laws.