Victims of abuse call for payouts of £450m
SURVIVORS of horrific child abuse spanning decades will this week call for the Scottish Government to begin a £450 million compensation pay-out.
After a damning inquiry reported children were sexually abused, beaten and humiliated at two orphanages in Lanarkshire, campaigners insist it is time for action.
On Tuesday, Deputy First Minister John Swinney will make a statement on redress in the Scottish parliament, with survivors watching from the public gallery. They want him to announce interim payments of around £10,000 each for sick and elderly victims, but that would just be the start.
In 2004, Labour First Minister Jack McConnell apologised for the abuse suffered in Scottish children’s homes, raising hopes of justice.
But campaigners say thousands of survivors have died in the intervening 14 years ‘without a sniff of justice’ and hope has turned to anger, fuelled by nearly £50 million spent on inquiries, reports and ‘talking shops’.
They include the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, Future Pathways, the National Confidential Forum, the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELSIS) at Strathclyde University, In Care Survivors Scotland, the Historic Abuse Systemic Review, the Kerelaw residential school report, Survivor Scotland and Time to be Heard.
Alan Draper, of the In Care Abuse Survivors Scotland campaign, estimates there are between 5,000 and 6,000 survivors and wants pay-outs to average between £50,000 and £75,000, which could amount to £450 million in total. He said: ‘It takes millions, but they’ve spent all this money on academics and reviews when they could have helped survivors. It makes you angry when you think of all the people who have died without a sniff of justice or accountability.’
Earlier this month, Lady Smith delivered the findings of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, saying vulnerable youngsters lived in a climate of fear and ‘coercive control’ at Smyllum Park in Lanark and Bellevue House in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, run by a Catholic religious order.
On Tuesday, Mr Swinney will respond to recommendations from CELCIS that a redress scheme be set up as soon as possible.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: ‘We recognise the hurt and damage caused to those who were abused in childhood by the very institutions who should have cared for them, and we have taken steps to improve the support available to survivors and begin to make amends.’