Mother who held dying son criticises ‘Nick’ payout as her claim is rejected
Grieving woman told she was not ‘emotionally involved’ enough to receive compensation
A MOTHER who cradled her dying son in her arms after he was fatally stabbed has criticised the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) for denying her a payout while giving £22,000 to the convicted paedophile and fantasist Carl Beech.
Karen McPhillips has had to spend her own money appealing against the decision not to give her a payout on the grounds she was not sufficiently “emotionally involved” in her son Jonathon’s death – despite accompanying him in the ambulance and switching off his life support machine.
The 28-year-old father of two, nicknamed JJ, was stabbed in the chest outside Islington Town Hall in north London in February 2017.
“I was with him in the street saying: ‘Keep breathing, keep breathing’,” said Ms McPhillips, 55, a hotelier.
“I was with him in the back of the ambulance. I saw the air ambulance guy massaging my son’s heart with his bare hands. I was in intensive care with him when I was told he was brain-dead and to switch off the machine – so at which point was I not involved?
“The CICA is not fit for purpose. It’s uncaring, it’s difficult to navigate, too many people have to fight to get money and there’s too much delay.”
CICA rules, which entitle “blameless victims of violent crime” and “qualifying relatives” to compensation, have been criticised for being bureaucratic.
Previous controversies include child abuse victims being denied compensation because they were viewed as having consented to the crime and payment being refused to the family of a man stabbed to death outside his home because he had confronted his attackers over noise they were making.
Beech, also known as “Nick”, was jailed last month for 18 years after being found guilty of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice, relating to his claims that he was raped and tortured by a murderous VIP paedophile group.
He was also convicted of one count of fraud in relation to the £22,000 he had received from the CICA for the abuse that had never taken place.
He was awarded the money, which the CICA is seeking to recover, on the strength of Wiltshire Police’s support for his claims. Ms McPhillips’ claim was initially rejected, but she won the right to appeal after her solicitors obtained CCTV footage showing her running to the scene within minutes.
Jennifer Buchanan, a personal injury lawyer at Fieldfisher, called for the “outdated” £500,000 cap on payouts to be reviewed, along with the requirement for claimants to pay for appeals.
“We deal with catastrophically injured claimants and they reach the cap very quickly. It’s great we have the scheme but there are huge delays.
“Claimants who appeal are seeing their damages wiped out. It should be like common law that if you win your case on appeal, you get your costs back.”
Although CICA sets tariffs, which allows £33,000 for the loss of a leg below the knee, and £44,000 above, other clients also claim to have been “shortchanged”.
Mohammed Banares lost both his legs in an unprovoked machete attack outside a Birmingham gym in May 2015 but was offered just £32,000. Now wheelchair-bound and having lost his livelihood, he said: “I’m at the point of giving up. I don’t know how I will manage my life going forward.”
The Sunday Telegraph has also learnt that an appeal by Mike Briggs, whose wife Kim was killed by courier Charlie Alliston riding a bike with no front brakes in 2016, was rejected by CICA on the grounds that a bike is a vehicle and doesn’t fall within the scheme.
Six per cent of the total 33,000 decisions made by CICA were appealed last year and 82 per cent upheld the CICA decision.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme provided £130million in taxpayer-funded awards last year. Decisions are based on information provided by applicants, the police, courts and medical professionals.
“CICA has a 95 per cent satisfaction rate and only a tiny fraction of its decisions are overturned at tribunal.”