BishopAccountability.org

Civil action over Shefford Boys' Home abuse will take 'some time'

By Katy Hallam
Bedfordshire Sunday
October 11, 2016

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/civil-action-over-shefford-boys-home-abuse-will-take-some-time/story-29797740-detail/story.html

Shefford boys' home




THE lawyer of 40 victims who suffered vile abuse at the hands of priests, nuns and other staff at a Shefford children's home dubbed the 'orphanage from hell' has warned the fight for compensation will be a long one.

Tracey Emmott, a specialist child abuse lawyer working at Bedford-based Emmott Snell solicitors, said civil action against St Francis Children's Society is now under 'immediate consideration' after criminal proceedings were brought to an end yesterday.

Her clients, now in their 60s, wept in court as they told how their lives were devastated by the abuse they suffered as children at the St Francis Boys Home in Shefford.

Former housemaster James McCann, 80, of Norfolk, was found responsible for 42 charges of physical and sexual assaults against young boys at a trial of the facts yesterday (Monday). He was given an absolute discharge after being deemed unfit to stand trial following a stroke.

Following the completion of McCann's case, it was revealed former scout master John Calhill, now 74, of Chandos Road, Bedford, was handed three-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to six counts of indecent assault on four boys aged between 10 and 14.

The Catholic Church has paid out compensation to two victims and more are pursuing civil claims in a class action.

Ms Emmott said: "It is certainly currently on the cards.

"It has been on hold while we were waiting for these criminal proceedings to work their way through the courts.

"Now it is a question of looking at each individual case because everybody is different and everyone had different things happen to them."

But she admitted the process could take a long time as there is a 'vast' amount of information to work through.

"It is a case of going through the police documentation and CPS documentation and determining whether or not they would be likely to succeed with civil actions," Ms Emmott added.

"You can imagine that the amount of documentation is absolutely vast. It is going to take some time yet before anything positive can be determined."

 




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