Survivors of abuse at children’s psychiatric hospital to receive huge compensation payouts
DOZENS of survivors of abuse at a children’s psychiatric hospital will receive compensation of up to £125,000 each.
Victims as young as ten were sedated up to 40 times, often as punishment, and left open to physical and sexual harm.
Compensation is being paid by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The settlement with about 70 victims comes after a three-year police major crime inquiry into Hill End Adolescent Unit in St Albans, Herts.
Conditions at the facility, for under-16s between 1969 and 1995, were “hostile, experimental and abusive”.
The Department for Health will issue a public apology.
Former patient Laurence Allen said: “The scheme for me, and I’m sure for others, is the start of a journey towards acknowledgement and closure.
“It is a recognition that what we went through as children happened, that it was wrong and that it has caused unimaginable damage.
“When we were children, we had no voice.
“Finally, after all these years, we have been listened to and given a voice.”
Another patient Stan Burridge said: “I sincerely hope that this scheme will ease at least some of the pain for those of us who have survived and stand as a deserved and lasting tribute to the countless others who aren’t here to see this day finally arrive.”