Lotto rapist case goes to House of Lords

Last Modified: 01 Nov 2007
Source: ITN

A law which stops a woman claiming damages from a rapist 19 years after the attack is to be challenged in the House of Lords.

The victim, known only as Mrs A, was attacked by serial sex offender Iorworth Hoare who won £7 million after buying a Lotto Extra ticket while out of prison on day release.

At the moment victims of crime can only seek compensation up to six years after the incident.

Mrs A, who is now 78, received just £5,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board after her rape ordeal.

She was also ordered to pay Hoare's £100,000 legal fees after unsuccessful attempts to bring a case for compensation in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

He was jailed for life in 1989 and spent 16 years in prison before his win while he was on day release late in 2004.

He was freed on parole the following March and is now reported to live in a £700,000 mansion near Newcastle.

Mrs A wanted compensation for psychiatric injury caused by the "violent and disgusting" attempted rape.

She was 59 when Hoare - who had previously subjected six other women to serious sexual assaults, including rape - attacked her as she walked in Roundhay Park, Leeds, in February 1988.

Mrs A says she still suffers from nightmares and claims the brutality of the attack destroyed her self esteem, wrecked her relationships and ruined her life forever.

But all her attempts to claim compensation from her attacker after his win were thrown out by the courts.

A High Court judge upheld a decision by a senior High Court official that Mrs A's damages claim should be struck out as it was brought more than six years after the assault and was covered by a section of the 1980 Limitation Act.

A year later three Court of Appeal judges held that the court was bound by an existing decision of the House of Lords.

Although most claims for damages for physical or psychiatric injury now have an extendable three-year limitation period from the date of the claimant's "knowledge", claims for damages arising out of an intentional sexual assault have a non-extendable six-year limitation period from the date of the assault (or the claimant's 18th birthday, if later).

She could not use the Human Rights Act to help her because the six-year limitation period had expired before it came into force, the appeal judges ruled.

Her case could establish a legal precedent because it would extend the deadline for victims to sue for compensation.

The Law Lords will also take into consideration four other cases involving challenges to the Limitation Act.

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