Children’s Society paid damages to victims of sex abuse
Charity admits that dozens living in its care homes were sexually assaulted
ONE of Britain’s biggest children’s charities made a series of secret compensation payments to child sex victims abused in its care, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
The Children’s Society has now admitted that dozens of vulnerable children were sexually assaulted while they were residents in the homes it ran. The charity has now issued an unprecedented apology to the children “in our care [who] have suffered harm and abuse”.
The organisation said it recognised that “at times [it had] failed some of the very children it sought to help”.
The compensation payments to victims are understood to have been paid out over the last 20 years, but have never been acknowledged by the Children’s Society until now.
In a 700-word statement, the charity admitted: “It is our role to ensure that children and young people are always properly supported to speak out about abuse or make a complaint about the way they are treated, under any circumstances. With enormous regret, The Children’s Society has not always lived up to these fundamental principles. We profoundly apologise to anyone who was abused emotionally, physically and sexually as children while in the care of The Children’s Society.”
The charity ran more than 100 care homes before its last one closed in 1997. It trawled records for cases it had settled as part of its submission for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the £100 mil- lion inquiry abuse.
The organisation had been implicated in the shocking scandal of children sent abroad – largely to Australia – where they suffered abuse but has now realised it was also culpable on a larger scale over abuse in the UK.
A spokesman for The Children’s Society, which has a £40million annual income, said the charity had paid damages in 20 cases for historic abuse.
The claims were first brought in the Nineties but incidents took place as early as the Fifties. In a further 33 cases, victims had been given counselling and support but had not sought financial recompense.
The charity has declined to say whether any particular children’s homes that it ran had seen higher levels of abuse than others. But the spokesman insisted that by making its public apology it no longer wished to “hide” past mistakes.
The Children’s Society has now launched a hotline to make it easier for further victims to come forward and has begun an independent review of the charity’s handling of claims as well as of wrongdoing.
The charity added: “We want to face up to these past mistakes, learn from the failings, and ensure that children today are protected from abuse, now and in the future.”
Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater & Gordon, said: “This apology is welcome but should have been made years ago.
“The Children’s Society has been aware for years that children in its care were abused and it is regrettable that victims have had to wait so long, and that the apology has only come under the pressure of scrutiny of the IICSA. The Children’s Society needs to match its words with support for survivors.” into historic