Woman awarded abuse damages

Brenda Moult was 13 when she entered the care home

A Staffordshire woman has received £60,000 for psychological damage suffered as a child in a care home.

Brenda Moult, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, said she was abused 20 years ago at Longdon Hall School, Staffordshire.

The payment was agreed in a out-of-court settlement with half the money being paid by Staffordshire County Council insurers and the other half by the school's insurers.

Staffordshire County Council and Honormead Ltd, the company employed to look after her, have not admitted liability.

Convicted paedophile

Mrs Moult said £60,000 is not sufficient compensation for what she suffered.

She told the BBC's Midlands Today programme: "I wanted justice and I have not been given justice.

Mrs Moult says that justice has not been done

"I haven't been given the opportunity to stand in a court and say what I feel and try to get justice properly."

Mrs Moult was just 13 when she was placed at Longdon Hall School - she says she was indecently assaulted by the then head of care, Richard Owen.

He was already a convicted paedophile.

She also said she was later sadistically abused again by a Staffordshire County Council worker.

This has never been proved and no one has supported her evidence.

To compile the case, lawyers had to trawl through 3,000 documents including reports, complaints and protests made by Mrs Moult.

She said: "They knew what happened.

"They knew, but didn't care."

A director of private company Honormead Ltd said employing a convicted paedophile would not happen today.

"We have to take every precaution.

"We do so now because we have a legal right to do so. At that time, we did not."