Research suggests that such children suffer a variety of
challenges right through to adulthood. These can start with attachment issues
because their victim mothers find it hard to bond with them due to the
circumstances of their conception. That can then translate to mental health, drug
and alcohol problems affecting those children throughout their lives.
Up until now though such children have not been regarded
legally as victims of crime. That can have a number of consequences such as not
being entitled to be part of the criminal proceedings involving their rapist
fathers or receiving help and support as victims.
The Government is proposing to change that by designating
them as victims which would mean that they could, for example, make a complaint
about the rape to police in their own right without having to rely on their
mothers being able to do so and they could access services such as drug and
alcohol dependency support.
An interesting example of how this may work is so called
Daisy’s law named after the child of a rape victim who was 13 when the rape
took place. Daisy had to fight long and hard to prosecute her father who was
eventually convicted of the rape of her mother at the age of 13.
If the children born of rape become officially recognised as
victims of crime it raises some questions as to whether they can then claim
compensation as such.
There are at present some barriers to this. The law does not
generally recognise the birth of an undamaged child as an actionable claim
because it is so hard to quantify. How do you quantify the loss caused by the
birth of a healthy child? What is that worth in money terms? The birth of a
child with health problems can be quantified because there is the cost of care
and treatment etc. So it begs the question of whether if a child born of rape
suffers health issues, such as drug dependency, is that a quantifiable loss
that can lead to a claim?
Theoretically it may be possible in those circumstances to
sue the rapist father for compensation but practically most such fathers have
no money, so may not be worth suing by their children.
There is also the Criminal injuries Compensation scheme
which is a scheme run with Government money to compensate the victims of Crime
who have suffered an injury. A barrier to claims under that may be that the
Court of Appeal has said that a child conceived by rape does not actually exist
at the moment of the rape so cannot have suffered an injury.
But these are all complex legal questions where the answers
are not clear. It is a developing area of law. Designating the children of rape
as recognised victims of crime may also change some of the law in this area. If
you have been the victim of crime our website will enable you to find a
solicitor who specialises in criminal law in a location near you, simply search
at https://search4legal.co.uk/Home/Search
clicking SRA regulated, Criminal (under services offered) and typing a location
in the search bar.
We have lots of free guidance to help you better understand your
legal needs at https://search4legal.co.uk/Home/Guidance
and you might be surprised at what you learn.
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