[2018] EWHC 3584 (QB)
- C raped by a non defendant – confided in D1, a teacher at D2’s school;
- D1 groomed C by telling him that, if he disclosed abuse, he would be thrown out of family etc;
- D1 raped C – years old abuse from aged 13 to 21, well after C had left school
Cutts J [213]:
“A person consents to sexual activity with another if they have the freedom and capacity to consent. Submission is not the same as consent. There is no suggestion that the claimant lacked capacity to consent once he reached the age of 16 years. Mr Seabrook argues however that he did not have the freedom to do so, that his freedom was impaired by the grooming and manipulation process. The first defendant had engineered the claimant’s dependency upon him and the claimant was required to be used sexually by the first defendant for the dependency to be met.”
Note also that Court dismissed an argument that school could
not be vicariously liable for any abuse after C had left school.
Para 219:
“The later assaults, as I have found them to be, were simply a continuation of the behaviour that commenced while and because the first defendant was a teacher. This conduct is thus indivisible from that which occurred while the claimant was a pupil at the school. I consider it just in those circumstances for the second defendant to be held liable for it.”