Damages

In assessing a claim for damages following rape of the claimants as children, the court ruled that the crime of rape of a child involved the infliction of physical pain as well as the traumatising of the child. It would often have serious, lifelong after effects. It was difficult and unrealistic to draw a firm line between the immediate effects of the rape and the psychological consequences. The real adverse impact of a traumatic crime would often be seen most clearly in the impact it had had on the mental state of the victim. The most significant factor in determining the final size of the award was usually therefore the psychiatric or psychological evidence, and the evidence of the victim about the consequences of the offending for her. There was no difference between male and female victims of sexual crime in the principle as far as quantifying damages was concerned. Some of the decided cases concerned long campaigns of abuse directed by a defendant against the victim. The very young ages of the victims