Met loses appeal against compensation ruling for John Worboys assault victims Metropolitan police lose challenge to ruling that led to two women sexually assaulted by cab driver receiving payout totalling £41,250
The Metropolitan police have lost their challenge to a ruling that led to two women who were sexually assaulted by London cab driver John Worboys being awarded compensation totalling £41,250.
One of the women, identified only as DSD, was the first of Worboys’ victims to make a complaint to the Met in 2003; the other, NBV, contacted them after she was attacked in July 2007.
Between 2002 and 2008, Worboys, who was jailed for life in 2009, carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults using alcohol and drugs on his victims.
In 2013, the high court ruled that the Met was liable to the women for failures in its investigation and said last year that DSD and NBV – who brought their claims under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act, which relates to inhuman or degrading treatment – should receive £22,250 and £19,000 respectively.
DSD alleged that she suffered a depressive disorder as a result of her treatment by officers during the 2003 investigation, while NBV claimed she suffered serious distress, anxiety, guilt and an exacerbation of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression because of her treatment during 2007.
In May, the Met’s counsel, Jeremy Johnson QC, told the court of appeal that the challenge related to points of principle and nothing, he said, was to detract from the bravery of the women, who would keep their damages whatever the outcome.
The judges dismissed both the Met’s appeal and a linked appeal against a high court decision that Greater Manchester police did not violate an assault victim’s human rights because of deficiencies in their investigation.
Johnson told the appeal court: “These women were attacked by a serial predatory sex offender. They did what all Londoners do: trust a black-cab driver to take them home safely. Each was drugged and sexually abused. Each took the courageous step, which most of the victims didn’t, of reporting the matter to the police. They had to relive what happened to them.
“In each case, my clients accept they were let down in that there were steps which could and should have been taken to investigate what happened to them, which were not taken. Neither of them or any of Worboys’ victims have any responsibility for what happened to them, or the fact he was not put behind bars earlier.
“We accept it is due to their bravery that he is serving an indeterminate sentence, and none of the submissions I make about the law is to detract from that.”
Johnson argued that the law did provide a remedy to claimants, but not that ordered by the high court. It allowed for a civil damages action and for a payment from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. DSD and NBV had each received compensation through these routes.
It also allowed for a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which, in this case, resulted in officers being sanctioned and policy changes implemented.
But, what the law did not allow was a right of action for damages for errors in a police investigation, the counsel said.
On Tuesday, Lord Justice Laws, sitting with the master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, and Lord Justice Kitchin, said it was inescapable that the high court judge was right to find a violation of the article 3 investigative duty and, under the applicable legal principles, his conclusion on liability was inevitable.
source:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... on-victims
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