Industry News: Compensation award for toddler attack
A child has won compensation after being hit in the head and face with a car jack by a three-year-old boy.
Jay Jones, age three at the time of the attack, was struck by another boy, also age three, after the two children were left alone together in a car.
Jay was struck 11 times and left covered in blood and semi-conscious after the attack, and the boy was said to have used such force that the carjack also cracked the windscreen.
The victim's mother Renai Williams, 29, said: ‘I thought Jay was dead when I saw him first. There was blood everywhere and he was limp and lifeless - it was a sight no mother should ever have to see.’
This ruling by a tribunal is unusual because criminal responsibility is only applied to children over the age of 10.
The ruling means that claimants will only have to prove they have been victim to a criminal act in order to be rewarded compensation, and may lead to similar claims being made to the The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).
CICA had rejected the original claim but the solicitor representing the child, David Kirwan, appealed to the Tribunals Service and won compensation. He said the new precedent ‘opens the floodgates’ for a lot more cases.
He acknowledged, however, that the case was extremely unusual. 'The doctor in the hospital had described our client's injuries as the worst of a child that age sustained at the hands of a child of equal age with a weapon,’ said Kirwan.
CICA is a government organisation which pays compensation to victims of violent crime. If you have been injured as a result of a criminal attack, visit the CICA website to find out how to claim.
