C v D [2006]
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | MR. JUSTICE FIELD,Mr. Justice Field |
| Judgment Date | 23 February 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | [2006] EWHC 166 (QB) |
| Docket Number | Case No: HQ 04X03327 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Date | 23 February 2006 |
[2006] EWHC 166 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Mr. Justice Field
Case No: HQ 04X03327
Mr. Justin Levinson (instructed by Clifton Ingram) for the Claimant
Mr. Paul Stagg (instructed by Match Solicitors) for the First Defendant
Mr. Andrew Warnock ( instructed by Beachcroft Wansboroughs) for the Second Defendant
Hearing dates: 16 th, 17 th, 18 th and 19 th January 2006
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
Introduction
The second defendants ("D2") are the trustees of a trust of an abbey that is responsible for two day schools for boys, a junior school and a senior school, both of which are operated in accordance with the teaching and ethos of the Roman Catholic Church. The Abbot of the abbey is Chairman of the Trustees of both schools.
In the period 1989 to 1993 the claimant ("C") was a pupil at the junior day school. The headmaster of that school throughout this period was the first defendant ("D1"), who is a Catholic priest. The claimant was nine years old when he started at the school.
In this action the C claims damages in tort from D1 alleging that he sexually abused him whilst he attended the junior school. He seeks general damages for mental distress and anguish and special damages for being disadvantaged in the labour market and being denied financial support by his parents once he had left school. He contends that the alleged abuse had a devastating effect on him, turning him into a troublesome and aggressive young man with no respect for his parents or anyone else in authority, with the result that he was rejected by his parents and was only able to settle into a degree course at university when he was aged 24, whereas had he not been abused he would have been a graduate entrant into the labour market four years' earlier and would have received the generous support his parents have given his sister but which they have denied him. The claim against D 2 is that as the employer of the first defendant, they are vicariously liable for the tortious abuse he committed on the claimant.
In summary, C makes three broad allegations of abuse against D1. First, he says that there were occasions when D1 touched his genitals whilst drying him with a towel after swimming lessons held at the local swimming baths ("the swimming baths incidents"). Second, he states that on one occasion D1 videoed him and other members of his class whilst they were taking a shower after a PE lesson ("the video incident"). Third, C says that on two occasions D1 took advantage of him when he was alone with D1 in the school infirmary having felt faint in assembly. On the first of these occasions ("the first infirmary incident") D1 unfastened his tie and top shirt button pulled down his trousers and underpants and stared at this genitals. On the second occasion ("the second infirmary incident") D1 fondled C's penis.
D1 adamantly denies both that he touched C's genitals whilst drying him after swimming and that he took C's trousers and underpants down in the infirmary and stared at and fondled C's genitals. D1 admits, however, that he videoed C and his classmates in the shower but says he was acting entirely innocently; the sports block containing the showers had recently been opened and he wanted to include footage of boys using the showers in a video school diary that would be shown to prospective parents and at parents' day.
The witnesses and documents relied on
C gave evidence on his own behalf and called a psychiatrist, Dr. Robin Benians, who gave expert evidence as to C's psychiatric history and present condition. C's school reports, his file maintained by the school psychologist at his boarding school and his medical records were also put in evidence. The witnesses called by the defendants were D1 and a Professor Anthony Maden, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Imperial College, who gave evidence in response to Dr. Benian's report. The defendants also tendered a statement under the Civil Evidence Act 1995 made by the priest who was the Abbot of the abbey when C was at the junior school. C and D1 both confirmed the truth of their respective witness statements on oath and were then rigorously cross-examined.
The evidence of C
C testified that his family are Roman Catholics and that as a boy and teenager he was brought up to be a Catholic. He entered the junior school in 1989, a term behind the other boys in his class. He was then aged nine years old. He was not sure of the sequence of the occasions on which he was abused but he was in no doubt that he was abused in the manner to which he testified.
The swimming baths incidents
Once a week for one or two terms C and his classmates were taken by D1 to the local swimming baths for a swimming lesson given by a female instructor. After the lesson D1 supervised the boys in the changing room. He used to stand in front of boys as they changed after the lesson and would select one or more boys each time to be dried by him. This was unnecessary: the boys were old enough to dry and dress themselves. The boys used to rush to change at the end of the swimming lesson as quickly as possible because they felt uncomfortable being stared at by D1 and did not want to be selected to be dried by him. Sometimes D1 would say a boy had not dried himself properly and would make him undress and dry himself again or D1 would dry him. Other times D1 would sit on a bench and call a boy over to be dried. On the occasions D1 dried C he touched C's genitals with his bare hand under the towel. C felt D1's fingers but the touching was more with the back of his hand. It lasted a few seconds and was not accidental. The boys used to call C "Gay Day" and referred to the days he took them swimming as "gay days". C felt very uncomfortable with D1's behaviour in the changing room but obeyed him because he was a priest and the headmaster.
C accepted in cross-examination that it was appropriate for D1 to be in the changing room supervising the boys and that other members of the public had access to the changing room, although few members of the public were ever there. C also said that he did not see D1 touch the genitals any of the other boys whilst drying them, but there was gossip that he did so.
The video incident
C said that on two occasions D1 insisted that he and his classmates have a shower after a PE lesson. PE lessons were taken by another teacher who never required C's class to have a shower after PE and never came into the changing room. D1 stayed in the changing room and watched the boys undress and shower. On one of these occasions he had a video camera. He had earlier filmed the boys in the gym during the PE lesson. C asked D1 what he was doing with the camera. D1 replied that he was making a film about the school and was only going to film the top halves of the boys. He proceeded to use the camera to film the boys including C in the showers. He pointed the camera up and down the length of C's body when C was in the shower. The filming seemed to go on for a long time but it could have been just for a minute. It was traumatic to be videoed in this way. C denied D1's allegation that D1 subsequently showed C's class the film shot in the showers.
When C got home that day he told his mother that D1 had videoed him in the showers. C's mother tried to reassure him. She told him not to worry and sought to suggest that what had occurred was not serious. C thought his mother was brushing him off. He believed that he was the "illogical" one and decided to keep quiet about the other abuse he suffered at the hands of D1. When he was fifteen, he had a row with his mother during which he accused her of not taking the video incident seriously. His mother then told him that she had in fact spoken to D1 about the incident and had seen the video of boys in the showers, but the video was very patchy and badly edited; it was obvious to her that sections had been edited out.
The infirmary incidents
C recalled two occasions when he had felt faint in assembly. Normally D1 conducted assembly but on these occasions there was a music assembly at which D1 was just a bystander. On both occasions C walked out and was followed by D1. He told D1 he felt faint and D1 took him to the infirmary where he told him to lie on the bed on his back. D1 shut the door. They were alone together in the room. D1 loosened C's tie and undid the top button of his shirt. D1 then undid his shorts and pulled them and his underwear down to his knees exposing his genitals. D1 told C to relax and then stared at his genitals saying things like "it's all right" and "don't worry, it's normal". On the first occasion D1 also said something which C cannot now remember but which made C feel he would look stupid if he talked about the incident to anyone like his parents. On this occasion D1 stared at his genitals for some minutes until the end of assembly could be heard. He then pulled C's shorts and underwear back up and they left the room.
The second incident proceeded just like the first but this time D1, after staring at C's genitals, fondled his penis, rubbing the foreskin backwards and forwards a few times very slowly. Whilst he did this he said things like "don't worry". When C got home after this second incident he barged past his mother and locked himself in the bathroom for three to four hours. His mother tried to coax him out and his father threatened to break the door down but he stayed put. Eventually he came out of his own accord, but when his parents questioned him he refused to...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
A v Hoare
...DLR (4th) 46, particularly at paras 44 and 46. 22 A footnote 133 Since we heard argument in this case, Field J has delivered a judgment in C v D [2006] EWHC 166 (QB) in which he explored the possible availability of a Wilkinson v Downton cause of action in a case like this: see [1897] 2 QB ......
-
Representative Claimants v Mgn Ltd
...as in the Vento case, the Court must look at the totality of the situation. This also occurs in sex abuse cases: see C v D and SBA [2006] EWHC 166. Field J produced a single figure representing the damages for sex abuse over an extended period (see para. 105). Lord Pannick develops that sub......
-
D Against The Bishop's Conference Of Scotland
...(at 491) that “Where the line is to be drawn is a 36 matter for expert psychiatric evidence”. In the context of sexual abuse, in C v D [2006] EWHC 166 (QB), Field J accepted the evidence of Professor Maden (an expert in the present case) and held that C was not suffering from a diagnosed il......
-
ABC v West Heath 2000 Ltd William Whillock (Part 20 Defendant / Third Party)
...dependent upon whether that relationship continues or ceases. 93 Neither party has been able to find a comparable case although I have found C v. D [2006] EWHC 166 (QB), and J L v. Archbishop Bowen and ors Manchester County Court March 2015 of some assistance. I have taken account of the se......