Award received after successful appeal for CICA to reopen case

In 1996 D was sexually abused by her step father. This was a single incident that occurred when she was aged 14. Years later in 2012, when she was an adult with her own children, she reported this incident to the police. West Yorkshire Police investigated and he was prosecuted. The trial resulted in a conviction and the offender was put on the sexual offenders register.

Victoria Price at Price Slater Gawne was asked to act for D in 2014. An application was submitted to the CICA. An award was finally made of £3,500 earlier this year.

At the beginning of the process the CICA closed D’s file by mistake. We had to appeal to the CICA to re-open the case, persuade them that they had made the mistake and work out with them how the mistake had been made. We also had to re-apply on D’s behalf but by this time the application was outside the 2 year time limit. There was a real risk that the application could have been rejected. Our appeal was successful in the end but a simple mistake at the CICA’s end caused this process to be much more complicated and drawn out than it should have been.

The CICA process is not a straight forward one

The CICA process is not a straight forward one, especially if it goes wrong. This should not put people off or prompt people to give up – there is usually a way round any obstacles and this is where our expertise comes into play.

D now has her award and some closure on what happened to her. On receiving her compensation she wrote to Price Slater Gawne to say: “Thanks for all you’ve done, much appreciated.”

If you believe you have been the victim of sexual assault, please do get in touch today. Call 0161 615 5554 or email SeriousInjury@psg-law.co.uk We promise you you will be treated with empathy and full confidentiality.