Compensation for abuse

I thought that children Under the age of consent were just that?

Apparently not.
They are even denied compensation if whoever was guilty is in prison, in some cases.
Sick, isn't it?

The chief exec is Carole Oatway. She was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to the victims of crime.

You don't even need to prove guilt to receive an award from the CICA.

I heard that on Radio 4 this morning. By definition, children under the age of consent CANNOT consent to sex, therefore it is abuse/rape depending upon the individual case. All of these cases are where the perpetrator has been found guilty, therefore the crime did happen.....I just do not understand. This is offensive and unfair in two ways;

(1) the compensation is needed to pay for more counselling or in some severe cases to help allay expenses of moving the entire family out of the area where the crime was committed

and

(2) it is telling the children that they were complicit in the abuse, were guilty of 'leading them on', or whatever disgusting words they use.It tells these children that they were not believed, or that it 'wasn't really that bad'.

Disgusting and shameful.

I'd be really interested in understanding why the claims have been refused.

Yes, Primrose, so would I.

Their website uses the words 'blameless' victims of crime. Clearly ( and I trust the charities on this) they appear to have a certain view of consent. But isn't that what we've heard some judges say, what some of the authorities in the grooming cases all said - some of the young girls there were described as prostitutes although bring under the age of consent. BTW her CBE is another of those worthless gongs that go to well paid civil servants for just doing their well paid job

It does say in the Guardian article that they were refused on the grounds the children gave consent. It seems the CICA use a different interpretation of consent than the legal system.
I'm going to drop an email to David Lidington, the Secretary of State for Justice to suggest that the CICA uses the same interpretation of consent as the courts.

There are other aspects to CICA awards that I find disturbing - if you have a criminal conviction, absolutely unrelated to your claim, it can be refused or reduced because if that. When they say 'blameless' they mean it in several ways - I think it sounds a bit Victorian myself

I think that was to try and prevent abuse of the system and I don't think it's intended to be used against these children

CICA awards are between £1000 and £44,000.
Denying them even the basic award denies them any sort of dignity in this.