Challenge to exclusion of historic child sex abuse victim from criminal injury compensation award

Fenella Morris QC and Nicola Kohn will act for the appellant in a landmark case in the Court of Appeal later this week, challenging the so-called "same roof rule".

The appeal challenges a decision by the First-tier Tribunal of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority not to make an award to JT, a victim of abuse at the hands of her stepfather because, at the time of the abuse in the 1970s, she and her stepfather "were living together as members of the same family" – that is, under the same roof.

The challenge is brought as an article 14 discrimination claim in conjunction with Article 1 Protocol 1 ECHR. It is one of three claims seeking to overturn the exclusion, continuing in parallel to cases in Scotland (A v CICB [2017] CSIH 46) and Northern Ireland (Re F [2018] NIQB 7).

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