Victim’s fury as NHS refuses to treat her scars – but spends £250,000 on her sex attacker
A SEX attack victim told of her fury yesterday after the NHS refused to fund treatment to remove scars left by her ordeal – while the man responsible has cost t axpayers more than £250,000.
Rolands Brize, a 27- year- old Latvian schizophrenic, was given a life sentence and a hospital order a year ago for attempting to rape the woman as she walked home from a nightclub.
He was sent to a £500-a-day secure private psychiatric hospital to receive the best mental health care available.
But his victim, a 25-year-old graphic designer, faced long delays before having her injuries dealt with.
She has now been told the NHS will not pay for the latest help she needs – Laser treatment recommended by a plastic surgeon.
She has battled knee problems and recurring pain since she was dragged under a bridge during the attack in March 2013. She is desperate to reduce the raised, ugly scarring on her right knee. After several months she received ster- oid injections on the NHS which reduced the scars, but last week health chiefs refused laser surgery because they say it is too expensive. The victim, who remains traumatised by her ordeal and still has sleepless nights, said she cried uncontrollably when her local NHS trust wrote to say that her case was not exceptional enough to warrant any more funding.
East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group explained that the treatment was not routinely paid for and she would not gain ‘significantly more benefit’.
In response, the woman said the treatment was likely to cost a few thousand pounds, which was nothing compared to her attacker’s health care. She said the scars were still a ‘horrible dark purple’.
Last night she said: ‘They won’t fund a one- off cheap bit of laser treatment for scarring I have from when I was dragged across the bridge by a foreign, psychotic criminal, yet the NHS have spent over £250,000 treating him and he will need treatment for years to come.
‘So us taxpayers will have spent a fortune. How is that even fair? Words just fail me. To me, it’s like they are saying I’m in the wrong and he has done nothing wrong and we’ll make sure he’s OK.’
The woman from Hull, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was targeted by Brize as she walked home. She shook him off at first and dialled 999, giving her location to the operator as she tried to escape. But as police raced to the scene Brize dragged her under a bridge and tried to rape her. He was arrested during the attack.
The court heard that when police arrived he was fumbling with his trousers and she was sobbing in a foetal position. The victim added: ‘I’ve had to fight for all my treatment and spent money on prescriptions and medication – and everything has been done for him.
‘I wanted to speak out, not just for me but for anyone else in my situa- tion. When I got the letter turning down funding I couldn’t stop crying. It may sound pathetic, but what have I done wrong that they can say no to me and yes to him?’
Her l ocal MP, Tory Graham Stuart, has promised to help her appeal against the decision.
He said her injuries were ‘not only a physical reminder of her ordeal, but an emotional one too’.
The terrified victim said of her ordeal: ‘I’ve never screamed or cried so much in my life. The 999 call wasn’t cut off, and the recording is one of the most horrific things because they could hear the screams.’ Passing sentence at Hull Crown Court last May, the judge sent Brize to Chadwick Lodge, a 52-bed medium-security hospital in Buckinghamshire for treatment.
Judge Mark Bury said Brize was ‘a dangerous offender’ who posed a ‘significant risk of causing serious harm to the public’. The court heard he was sent to a mental hospital for arson in 2008 in Latvia and released after eight months. In 2009 he moved with his mother and sister to live in Britain.
Instead of working, he stole from shops, attacked family members and drank heavily. Before the sex attack he lived in homeless hostels and racked up 11 convictions, mainly for assault and shoplifting.
Yesterday the Ministry of Justice refused to confirm whether he was still being treated at the private hospital. He is understood not to have been transferred to prison where it costs an average of £37,000 annually to keep a prisoner.
Brize had already cost taxpayers around £150,000 before sentencing and his care since may have cost up to another £180,000.
‘What have I done wrong?’