Since the Pindown Inquiry the torrent of revelations of malpractice and abuse in organised settings has ensured that this otherwise sophisticated and sinister practice has come to the public consciousness. With that and the horror that such wide scale abuse could have occurred, force has been lent to the demands for "Justice". For those that have been abused justice is a nebulous concept, tinged with feelings of betrayal and revenge. It is naive of the vast majority of professionals who work in this field to think that we will be fully able to understand. Sympathise we might, but empathise we cannot. With the emergence of these matters, has come a welter of legal issues, for all concerned: -

1. The criminal investigation is concerned with ensuring conviction of the main culprits, often not proceeding against those, who upon the face of it have committed minor acts but whose complicity is none the less indicative of the reasons for the scale of the abuse

 

2. Local Authorities and Care Providers who are caught in an unholy alliance between Constituents and their Insurance Companies. On the one hand they owe a duty to their constituents to fully investigate matters and to report upon any malpractice's, actions that need to be taken and any culpability of their own. On the other hand they owe a duty to their insurers, who often threaten withdrawal of cover.

 

3. The legal profession is faced with claims of a nascent nature, and a subject matter that often is distressing. Dealing with individuals who are traumatised requires patient, time and understanding.

Professional boundaries are all important, they enable matters to be dealt with objectively and ensure the best outcome. It is important to realise ones own boundaries – some common problems: -

1. Giving clients false hopes and failing to deal with the reality of the position

 

2. A failure to see all the issues, being a product of over involvement

 

3. The client’s sense of betrayal if matters do not work out.

 

4. Lawyer or counsellor (you are unqualified for the latter).

At the outset ensure: -

1. Your client is fully informed as to what he will be expected to do.

 

2. You client is fully informed as to what you will do.

 

3. Realistically the problems that will be faced.

 

4. Realistically what he may recover – set against the trauma that will have to be endured.

 

5. Be honest as to costs.

 

6. Listen and allow rapport to build. You can only earn the respect of your client and thus a rapport with him, it is not something that you can immediately expect.

In this way, you are able to establish from the outset of an action, a regime that builds in its own boundaries.

Always evaluate your professional boundaries, both privately and with your client. Nothing is written in stone and things will change as the rapport between you builds. At this stage the danger of crossing those self-imposed boundaries becomes greater.

As I have said earlier, the emergence over recent years of large scale child abuse investigations, whilst on the whole successful, has nonetheless been at a price. Without doubt the victims, for whom justice is a tainted concept, pay that price.

Victims’ complaints are in most circumstances rooted at the very beginning of an investigation, as the legal process traverses its journey to conclusion; those complaints are compounded and added to. So what do they consist of?

1. Victims are often approached during investigations without warning and by officers with whom the vast majority may have had earlier contact. The level of distrust is high and the ability to "tell their story" impaired by the approach. Whilst evidence must be preserved, thought must be given to this whole method of approach.

 

2. Minor abusers are often not proceeded against. Clients need to be kept fully informed and not given false hopes. The public policy/resource grounds must be explained.

 

3. Having opened the Pandora’s Box of their past and taken what there is, victims are left with little or no long term support to help them cope. The state system deals extremely badly with such traumatised and challenging individuals and more often than not they are left to their own devices, often to their detriment and that of their families.

 

4. The Inquiry process offer some hope that eventually somebody will listen but only if it is able to understand the nature of the victim and the sensitivity of the subject matter. Thought must be given to the long term counselling of volunteer witnesses and the very real impact it will have upon their lives.

 

5. The civil process, often by now the third set of legal proceedings – only serve to lengthen their ordeal. Often victims are dismayed at the need to "prove" THEIR case, the criminal process and Inquiry having gone before them. Again, little or no support is available to assist and the danger of being seen as a counsellor for your client is immense.

 

6. Does compensation offer anything of value to victims of abuse? For many it comes, as the only recognition that what happened to them was wrong and that as a result they have been harmed. For many it is the realisation that they are not "mad" but their problems are not of their own creation. It is none the less an uncomfortable justice. It is, however, important to stress that compensation will not turn the clock back or directly punish the assailants, but rather assist in rebuilding lives and helping victims to cope with the recurrent memories.

With honesty a victim soon should realise that they now are in control.

Perhaps it is fair to always assume with the humility that must come with the position that it is not our judgment but the experiences of victims themselves that create change.

Does the inquiry process help? I would suggest that in most circumstance yes. The report into Pindown created awareness of the problem and plight of children in care. It highlighted the vulnerable position that such children are in. The Leicestershire Enquiry Report (Kirkwood) once again forcefully revealed the ineffectual nature of Local Authority managers that allowed Beck to rise to a position where he was not questioned by those who ought to have known of the risks involved, of the insidious nature of the bogus therapy that gave rise to the abuse and the culpability of those to blame, naming those individuals. It was accepted by the local authority and created the impetus for change. New procedures were introduced and a child's rights service. Above all the report highlighted that children in care are by their very circumstances disenfranchised of all the rights available to the normal community. That as a result of this they are prone to abuse and exploitation. In such circumstances such children need to be afforded greater protection than otherwise would have been the case.

Both of the above reports were of course on a much smaller scale than the North Wales Tribunal Inquiry and their remit limited. The process for the victims was much the same. It is unfortunate that having contributed in very real and personal terms they hear nothing now but silence. The various deadlines have passed without delivery. Is it not therefore surprising that victims are naturally suspicious of a process that was carried out in their name, but has not as yet been delivered. Is it perhaps not surprising that the delay has further embedded those seeds of doubt.

It is also of note that the Inquiry process not only opens the debate for the victims of abuse but also affords those who are accused a voice and those who seek to assert that such allegations of widespread abuse are no more than a sophisticated collection of lies and exaggerations. Such a position although in most cases untenable affords balance to the debate.

I suggest that it is not these reports or inquiries themselves that create the impetus for change, but those who lived the experiences and continue to live the experiences. For those who have the courage to come forward and to speak publicly of them.

Perhaps the echo of many "I was a child in care - who was going to listen to me" reflects the sense of despair felt at the time and perhaps now.