The British government has been accused of denying hundreds of sexually abused children the right to receive compensation.
A group of charities raised concern with Justice Secretary David Lidington in a letter, after freedom of information requests revealed that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) was refusing to pay child abuse victims on the grounds that they had given consent to their attackers.
According to media reports, CICA, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, has refused payments to around 700 abused children as young as 12 even if their assailants were jailed because of their crimes.
In their letter, Barnardo’s, Victim Support, Liberty, Rape Crisis and the National Working Group (NWG) asked Lidington to review CICA’s guidelines.
The letter said the rules needed to be changed so that “no child groomed and manipulated into sexual abuse is denied compensation because they complied with their abuse through…