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500,000 pound settlement for 16 pupils of sex abuse schools
Victims of sickening child abuse at a string of privately-owned schools in the Westcountry have received compensation pay-outs totalling more than half a million pounds for the pain and suffering it caused them. The 16 former students of Pitt House Schools Ltd's schools in Torquay, Chudleigh and Newton Abbott, which also acted as care homes for vulnerable youngsters in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, received pay-outs ranging from £5,000 to £70,000 after insurers for the defunct company agreed to settle out of court for the sexual, mental and physical abuse they received at the hands of former staff members. One former pupil, who suffered a catalogue of mental health problems after being abused at the school in the 1960s, said the money was nice but would not take away the pain he still felt.
"I have suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder and depression for my whole life since it happened," said the 58-year-old, who recently learned that his abuser had died.
He paid tribute to WBW Solicitors, which has been pursuing the claim on the former students' behalf, even having the company reinstituted, despite being wound up in 1988, so the compensation case could go ahead.
Derek Hooper, a former special constable from Bovey Tracey who worked at Pitt House's Forde Park Approved School in Newton Abbot, was found guilty in September 2000 of 28 indecent assaults, seven counts of attempted serious sexual assault, three of serious sexual assault and two counts of incitement to commit serious sexual assault. He is currently serving a 14-year jail sentence.