All he wanted was the chance to rebuild his life shattered by sexual and physical abuse, but the legal system failed him. Linda Jackson reports on his ordeal
After 14 years of systematic sexual and physical abuse, and a further six years fighting for compensation, Zak Savio thought his ordeal was finally over. One of the most traumatised victims of Britain’s worst child sex abuse scandal, he hoped to use compensation money to rebuild his life and go to college.
To his shock, however, the former resident of Bryn Alyn children’s home, north Wales, has been warned he is unlikely to receive a penny of a £50,000 settlement because it has all been eaten up in legal costs totalling almost £200,000. His plight has been described as “extraordinary” by the legal services commission, formerly the legal aid board.
Savio, now 30, is one of a growing number of former children’s home residents who, despite being proven abuse victims, are failing to get any money for the pain and damage they have suffered. At least six others are considering suing lawyers who, they allege, advised them to abandon compensation claims halfway through a battle for damages.
All are victims of a legal system that stands in the way of successful claims against institutions, according to child abuse solicitors who are calling for changes in the funding of legal costs in complex and drawn out cases. They also say urgent action is needed to simplify the compensation system.
Official figures suggest more than 2,000 people have begun civil proceedings for compensation for abuse they suffered in care in England and Wales. But it is thought there could eventually be as many as 15,000 potential claimants. Most, like Savio, are young men – many of whom have been pursuing claims for more than five years over abuse that happened as long as 30 years ago.
Time lags such as these cause particular problems, according to Peter Garsden, executive officer of the Association of Child Abuse Solicitors. “There are frequently difficulties in locating documents, which may be destroyed,” he says. “Add to this the strict time limits, within which proceedings should be issued, and an obstructive defence which makes technical points in the hope of wearing down the claimant who is already very vulnerable.”
Savio’s case is a tragic example of how the system can add to the trauma suffered by abuse victims. Unable to escape the horrors that haunt him, he says he has tried to commit suicide 10 times. The last attempt was less than 12 months ago, when his solicitors told him he was “unlikely” to receive any money for a settlement they had just reached. A week later, details of the assaults he suffered, along with hundreds of other vulnerable young people at Bryn Alyn and other children’s homes in north Wales, were catalogued with publication of the Waterhouse report, the biggest inquiry into child abuse in Britain.
For Savio, who grew up thinking it was normal for men to have sex with boys, it was a despair he hoped he would never know again. In 1995, there was a justice of sorts when his abuser John Allen, former head of Bryn Alyn, was jailed for six years for indecent assault of boys in his care. Twelve months later, his hopes of a fresh start rose when his solicitors, Stephens Innocent (now Finers Stephens Innocent), claimed for damages for psychological disturbance caused by neglect, maltreatment and physical and sexual abuse he suffered between the ages of four and 18 while in local authority care.
Writs were issued in 1996 against Warwickshire county council, Bryn Alyn Community Holdings and Royal Insurance, the home’s insurers. All contested the claims – and the solicitors spent the next three years trawling through files for evidence. During that time, Bryn Alyn Community Holdings went into liquidation.
In July 1999, Stephens Innocent said Savio would accept a settlement of £50,000 from Warwickshire, after the authority offered to pay £30,000. The higher figure was agreed in January 2000. Around the same time, an agreement was reached with Bryn Alyn Community Holdings and Royal Insurance that Savio would discontinue the action with no order for costs except legal aid assessment.
It is understood that a separate group action against Bryn Alyn will be heard in court next month.
Savio recalls: “I was told I had to accept the settlement – otherwise my legal aid would be withdrawn and I would get nothing. I had hoped for more than £50,000. In one case that has gone to court, someone has received £180,000. All I wanted was enough money to go to college, get a flat and start my life again.”
Within days of the agreement, Savio was devastated to receive a letter from Nicola Solomon, a partner at Stephens Innocent, setting out the implications of the settlement. She explained: “It is likely you will not receive more than the £1,500 in the end; in fact, it is quite likely that the whole of the £50,000 will go in legal costs”.
The news tipped Savio over the edge. He cut his wrists and took an overdose. He was discovered almost dead on the beach at Brighton, where he lives. “Someone found me and I was taken to hospital,” recalls Savio, who has spent the last 12 months in despair. “I have put the last five years of my life into this – all for nothing.”
Solomon insists she is “very disappointed” with the outcome of Savio’s claim. “It is an extraordinary situation which is very unjust to Zak,” she says. However, she adds that she painted a worst-case scenario in her letter – and that she hopes to be able to secure some money for him following a court assessment of costs in June. Asked about the decision to settle, she says it was taken on counsel’s advice. “We were advised that we would not get more than £50,000 overall from all three claimants – the maximum we could hope for. The decision to settle was made on that basis. “
The case has shocked the legal services commission. “It is very unusual for a damages award to end up being much less than the costs of a case,” says spokesman Colin Stutt. Legal aid would have been awarded on the understanding that any damages would outweigh the cost, he explains. New rules, introduced under the Access to Justice Act, mean there are extra controls on cases expected to cost £25,000 or more, for which all costs have to be agreed in advance by the commission.
These controls should prevent a repeat of Savio’s case. But Garsden, who represents 700 abuse claimants, wants major changes in the way all compensation claims are handled.
“There are all sorts of ways in which the process of compensation could be made simpler for claimants,” he says. “First, the burden of proof should be on the defendant, not the claimant. Defendants would have to prove how well they looked after the claimant.
“We also need to see all records at a much earlier stage. We have had enormous difficulty getting hold of social care records. In some cases, the names of abusers have been deleted. We also need to lift the time limitation so cases aren’t hurried together. Furthermore, employers should not be able to argue that they are not responsible for the abuse of their employees. Finally, costs must be proportionate to the damages recovered. At the moment, they have no bearing on the amount of damages received.”
Such changes would bring small comfort to Savio, who has to be content with a £1,500 loan from his solicitors – repayable if there is money left in the settlement once the costs have been sorted.
Debbie Jones, director of Voices in Care, a charity which campaigned for 11 years for the north Wales inquiry, sums it up. “Zak has been betrayed in every stage of his life,” she says. “All he wanted was justice and a quality of life. Now he is a victim again.”