Sex abuse victim wins £1 2 million 47 years on
A VICTIM of a Scottish care home paedophile has been awarded £500,000 compensation in a landmark case.
The sum awarded by City of Edinburgh Council is the largest child abuse payout ever made by a Scottish public body.
The recipient – a man whose identity is protected by law – was subjected to a horrific four-year ordeal at the hands of serial predator Gordon Knott, who is serving his second jail term for a perverted reign of terror while in charge of children’s homes in the capital in the 1970s and 1980s.
Council lawyers had offered £200,000 to the victim, who is now middle-aged and living outside Scotland, but last month agreed on the unprecedented
‘Irreversible damage done to his trajectory in life’
sum in an out-of-court settlement. A source close to the case said: ‘The size of the sum is recognition of the terrible nature of the abuse he suffered and the irreversible damage done to his trajectory in life.’
The huge award sets a new benchmark for what may become a flood of historical claims. Until recently, victims were unable to sue for damages if their ordeals had occurred more than three years in the past. But legislation in 2017 abolished the ‘time bar’, giving litigants a second chance at justice through civil courts.
At least a dozen councils are preparing for huge compensation bills after the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse
Inquiry. The unnamed victim raised his case at the National Personal Injury Court, suing the council for the sustained sexual abuse he suffered at the Clerwood home in Corstorphine between 1973 and 1977.
Knott – now 66, of Carstairs, Lanarkshire – was a trusted social worker but his trials heard evidence of sickening abuse. He was jailed for 16 years in 1997 for abusing eight boys and a girl at Clerwood and a second Edinburgh care home, Glenallan, as well as possessing child pornography.
Two more victims then came forward and he was sentenced to a further four years in 2018.
Children’s charity NSPCC Scotland said coverage of the latest case, showing that victims can achieve decisive justice, would encourage more to come forward.
City of Edinburgh Council said it was continuing to work closely with police and partner agencies ‘to investigate any allegations of abuse, whether current or historical’.