New York set for surge in historic sex abuse cases as new law gives adults longer to file

NEW YORK is anticipating a flood of sexual abuse claims following a change in the law last week.

The Adult Survivors Act gives alleged victims a year to file historic cases which, under previous legislation, would have been considered past the deadline.

One of the earliest women to use the new law was E Jean Carroll, a journalist who accuses Donald Trump of raping her in the early 1990s.

The former US president Mr Trump has denied the allegations. The new law allows claims to be filed by alleged victims if they were over 18 when the assault took place.

It is based on the state of New York’s Child Abuse Act, that came into force in 2019 and set a two-year deadline for historic claims to be filed. At the time around 11,000 claims were filed against an array of institutions including churches, schools and camps.

Other cases anticipated under the new law include a planned class action against Robert Hadden, a former gynaecologist at hospitals tied to New York-presbyterian and Columbia University. He was convicted in 2016 on sex-related charges but has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of abusing female patients over two decades.

New York is the latest state to lift the statute of limitations, responding to pressure from the #Metoo movement.

New Jersey, California, Arizona and Montana have also done so. Doug Wigdor, who represented women who testified against Harvey Weinstein, said: “I think there will be some interesting cases that come about in the employment cases where powerful men, who were supervising women or overseeing women, sexually assaulted them. They will be able to hold their perpetrator accountable but also their employers.”

Jane Manning, who heads the Women’s Equal Justice project in New York, hailed the change in the law.

She said: “Too often in the criminal justice system we still have too many prosecutors who decline to take sex crime cases simply because they think they will be difficult to win. That is not a good reason.”

‘Prosecutors decline to take sex crime cases to trial because they think it will be difficult to win’