A Scottish judge has lifted a time bar in a landmark case that could help unblock thousands of potential civil actions for childhood abuse.
Lord McEwan, in a Court of Session decision, has allowed a 43-year-old Glasgow man to sue the city's council over sexual abuse he claims to have endured at the hands of a carer in a children's home.
The move, understood to be one of the first of its kind in Scottish legal history, comes after Law Lords earlier this year struck down a time bar preventing a victim of rapist Iorworth Hoare from suing him after he won £7m on the National Lottery.
Council lawyers deny the allegations made by the alleged Glasgow victim but also said they believed his claims were time-barred.
Lord McEwan said his case should go to a full hearing. The judge said that, although the alleged abuse dated from the 1970s, the man began to suffer psychological effects only decades later and was therefore still entitled to claim.
Lord McEwan said: "Whatever is said about the abuse, it is clear that no claim is being made for the assaults which, given his age at the time, are serious enough.
"The only issue is the psychiatric damaged suffered from about June 2001."
The judge cited the House of Lords decision in the Hoare case. "It is, of course, based on slightly different legislation but appears to encourage more cases being allowed to proceed under the discretionary provisions," he said.
The Glasgow man's lawyer, Cameron Fyfe, is a litigator at Ross Harper who represents nearly 1000 victims of childhood abuse. Mr Fyfe said: "This is very important for us because it is the first time we have succeeded in arguing that the time bar should not apply in historic abuse cases."
Mr Fyfe's client said he was abused in the 1970s at the now-shut Eversley home in Pollokshields, Glasgow. His alleged abuser is thought to have left the country. The alleged victim claims he was beaten for lying when he reported the abuse. Several members of Eversley staff have been investigated for alleged sex offences against children. One, John Marshall, was jailed for life in 2006 for sexually abusing 16 children.
The alleged victim said he had blocked out memories of his abuse for two decades. He was not a victim of John Marshall. A married father of five, he is claiming £25,000 after developing what his doctors say is post-traumatic stress disorder when allegations about Eversley surfaced in 2001.
Yesterday he said: "All I want is to see this man in court. I want to know how people can do things that are as twisted as that."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We are appealing against this decision and it would be inappropriate to comment."
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