£1.3m damages awarded for child abuse by foster parent
A man who suffered child sexual abuse for five years at the hands of a foster parent with whom he was placed by Glasgow City Council, has been awarded more than £1.3m in damages against the council.
Lord Brailsford in the Court of Session assessed the damages following proof in an action brought by the man, referred to as A.
A, now aged 50, was taken into care at the age of 21 months. He was cared for in children's homes and by different foster parents for most of his subsequent childhood. From age 12 until age 17 he was in the foster care of WQ and his wife CQ (who was not always in the home). In 2019 WQ was convicted of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour, indecent assault and indecent assault and unnatural carnal connection to injury of A, and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. In an impact statement A said he had been "raped and molested and subjected to daily threats of physical violence and being placed back into care to force me to submit to [WQ's] constant voracious abuse. Severe abuse and rape was a regular occurrence".
A had obtained four higher at school and had held responsible jobs at times, but had also experienced periods of chaos in his life. He suffered continuing flashbacks and intrusive thoughts, always about WQ, which affected his relationships with other people, and the "burden of coping" repeatedly caused him to leave his employment. Medical experts considered that A met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, and also suffered from ongoing anxiety disorder, and problems with emotional regulation and personal identity, to which the abuse had made a substantial contribution.
Liability was admitted but the defenders submitted that A's disturbed background prior to the abuse had also had a substantial impact on his later life.
Assessing damages, Lord Brailsford said he found A a credible witness, and that there was no evidence to link earlier events in his life with psychiatric or psychotic illness. On the contrary, he had coped with these and the causes of his conditions were the abuse he sustained at the hands of WQ.
Solatium was awarded at £135,000, apportioned £90,000 to the period of the abuse, £25,000 for psychological disorders from then until the present day, and £20,000 for future symptoms. Rejecting the defenders' argument for lump sum approach, loss of earnings was awarded on the basis of the submissions for A and calculated at £584,874 for the past and £370,561 for the future, together with pension loss of £240,000 and treatment costs of £8,750, a total of £1,339,185. Interest would be discussed at a further hearing.