Wirral MBC succeeds on limitation in alleged historical child abuse case

A judge at Liverpool County Court has ruled that the passage of time in a historical child abuse case involving Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council meant a fair trial was impossible.

The claimant had alleged abuse by her mother and stepfather and that the local authority had failed to take her into care to protect her from that abuse.

However, the judge ruled that there could not be a fair trial of the complex facts in such a case so long after the events complained of, and declared the claim to be statute-barred. In the vast majority of similar cases, the defendants have lost on limitation.

Kathy Perrin, an associate solicitor with Hill Dickinson, which acted for Wirral MBC, said: “Local authorities and other child care organisations continually face claims from adults who allege that they were neglected or abused as children within the family home, either by family members or visitors to the home, and that the local authority was negligent in failing to take them into care either promptly or at all, in order to protect them from the abuse.

“The difficulty for local authorities lies in mounting a positive defence to these claims after the passage of time. Following recent adverse publicity about the provision of social care services, these so-called ‘failure to take into care’ claims are expected to increase. Local authorities are often self-insured, or have a high deductible, meaning that it is public money which has to be used to defend these claims.”

Perrin added that the ruling would be welcomed by local authorities and other providers of childcare services, “demonstrating as it does an acceptance by the courts that claims involving complex allegations of negligence cannot be fairly adjudicated upon after a long delay”.