| SPOTLIGHT |
A large group of former pupils who attended Lower Lee School in Woolton, Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s have instructed lawyers to bring a civil legal claim against Liverpool City Council, who they argue allowed abuse to go on “unchecked”.
The ex-pupils have instructed Dino Nocivelli of Leigh Day’s abuse team partner to represent them.
According to Leigh Day, the men allegedly suffered “sexual, physical, emotional and verbal abuse” at the school that was for boys who were deemed to have behavioural problems.
The boarding school, which was run by the city council, closed in 2009.
Child care officer Thomas Curbishley and head of care Peter Amundsen were jailed for offences related to the abuse in the 1990s. Amundsen pleaded guilty to 53 offences over almost 20 years, which involved eight boys aged between 12 and 15 years.
According to the BBC, Judge Denis Clark told Liverpool Crown Court at the time that there had been “no adequate system of staff monitoring or scrutiny and checks of applicants”.
Leigh Day said the group of men are calling for others to come forward and to provide further evidence regarding their allegations of abuse.
Dino Nocivelli said: “My clients were vulnerable not just due to their age and the fact they were having to board at the school but also because of their perceived behavioural issues. They deserve answers as to how someone like Peter Amundsen was able to get a job at the school despite, as the criminal judge who sentenced him stated, having no qualifications to do the job as head of care at the residential school. The judge further stated he had little experience and there was ‘deliberate, systematic and very extensive sexual abuse of children’ at the school.”
He continued: “It is time that my clients obtain justice for what they have suffered and that Liverpool City Council accepts accountability for the abuse that allegedly happened under their watch.”
A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said: “We are truly sorry for the impact the abuse has had on the lives of those affected. The young people were let down by those who were supposed to be taking care of them, and it should never have been allowed to happen. We worked closely with Merseyside Police on the Operation Care investigation in the 1990s which brought to justice some of those responsible and, more recently, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.”
Lottie Winson
