Leicester City Council pay out £400,000 in child abuse case
February 07, 2008
Leicester City Council has paid £400,000 in compensation and legal costs to seven children (now adults) who were abused by a DJ at the Granby Halls roller skating rink between 1978 and 1999. Solicitors for the victims say that the orders settling the action will be signed off by the High Court in London this week.
Barry Spencer worked at Granby Halls from the 1960’s until it shut in 1998. He was jailed for 15 years in January 2006 after admitting 69 sexual assaults on 15 girls and one boy. Since then, some of his victims have been fighting for compensation from the Council that employed him.
Jonathan Wheeler, a partner with Bolt Burdon Kemp who acted for five of the Claimants said that the compensation pay out was a good result for his clients. “There is no admission of liability here, but defendants don’t pay out this sort of money unless there is a case to answer” he said.
Commenting on the Council’s reaction to the claims he said “Leicester denied liability from the word go, and as a result, the legal costs in pursuing this claim have been massive, as much again as the compensation awarded.” Wheeler added “Spencer has clearly cost the Leicester council tax payer a tidy sum, and this sort of settlement clearly reinforces the need for proper monitoring and checking of employees who come into contact with children as part of their jobs. If employers get it wrong, it will cost them”. It was as a result of publicity in the Leicester Mercury last year that important witnesses came forward, as well as three more victims who were advised to join the action in suing the Council. Wheeler was keen to emphasise the positive effect that the end of the litigation will have for the victims involved in the court case: “The main thing is my clients can draw a line under all this and get on with their lives, having the funds available to pay for the counselling and treatment many of them desperately need.”
Click here to read the article featured in the Leicester Mercury.