The news in recent days and weeks has been dominated by the Jimmy Savile child abuse allegations.
We have heard terrible stories about the actions of a celebrity previously held in the nation’s affections.
One silver lining to this awful cloud however has been the increased awareness of child abuse and the empowerment of victims to come forward.
The nature of child abuse often leaves victims with profound psychological damage that affects them for the rest of their lives. Victims may also deal with the abuse by locking the memories away in their brain; sometimes only to be brought to the surface when triggered by something at a much later date – such as a high profile abuse story such as the Jimmy Savile case.
In the last few weeks, we have seen a significant increase in the number of clients – both those with allegations against Jimmy Savile and others with completely unrelated abuse claims – contacting our specialist abuse department. Our Manchester office has a dedicated team who specialise in helping the victims of child abuse. Our abuse solicitors have seen new enquiries quadruple since the Jimmy Savile story began to gain momentum.
In the past week alone, I have taken on a number of new compensation claims for victims of historic abuse as a direct result of the Jimmy Savile story. Hopefully these new clients, some of whom will not feltable to speak about what happened to them for years, if not decades, will ultimately benefit from at last being able to address the experiences they had during childhood.
By Jonathan Bridge, Child Abuse Lawyer