LOTTO RAPE CAS: NEW HOPE FOR JUSTICE

Tuesday, December 27, 2005 posted 10:18 AM EST

A Leeds pensioner's fight for justice from so called Lotto Rapist Iorworth Hoare is to be taken to the Master of the Rolls - Britain's most senior judge - in the new year.

The Rt Hon Lord Phillips will sit with two other Lords Justice of Appeal to hear Hoare's 76-year-old victim of his violent attempted rape plead again for the life-long sex offender to be made to take responsibility for lives he shattered in long years of serial sex offending.

Known to the courts as Mrs A - and to YEP readers as Rose - to protect her identity, the retired schoolteacher will plead that Hoare owes his victims demonstrable remorse and should repay to the taxpayer funds paid to victims on his behalf via the Criminal Injuries Board.

Rose was given permission to take her arguments to the Court of Appeal on December 9 by senior judge the Rt Hon Lady Justice Smith who recommended the Master of the Rolls should preside at the hearing because of the "Public Importance" of the case.

She said the grounds of the case were arguable and gave rise to important points of principle which provided compelling reasons why Rose's appeal against previous High Court decisions should be heard.

The judge also recommended the Master of the Rolls should hear the case because it presented matters of public importance.

The Court of Appeal hearing is provisionally listed for five days in early February. Rose's case will be heard alongside two others with similar characteristics. One is an appeal from a child sex abuse victim who has also been denied the right to claim reparation from his attacker because of the Limitations Act - which bans any claim after three years.

Successive Home Secretaries have consistently pledged to address the flaws in the Statute of Limitations but have yet to keep those promises.

Both David Blunkett and Charles Clarke admitted the law was wrong, accepting advice given four years ago by the Law Commissioners.

But while the Government continues to drag its feet on changing legislation, victims continue to suffer and violent offenders need do nothing to face responsibility to those whose lives they have ruined.

Rose's solicitor Rachel Booth, of DLA Piper, Leeds said: "The permission to appeal and the fact that the Master of the Rolls will hear it is promising. It is clear from the judge granting permission to appeal that Rose's case is seen as one of compelling urgency. Unfortunately, neither Hoare nor the Home Secretary has yet seen it that way."

Rose, who was attacked by Iorworth Hoare in Roundhay Park in broad daylight 18 years ago, was the only one of his many victims personally to give harrowing evidence at his trial - from which he received a life sentence.

Since his early release last year, he has refused to make any out of court settlement on Rose or any of his victims, preferring to drag his resistance and the pensioner through the courts.

In spite of being a multi-millionaire - he earns £30,000 interest a month on his £7m jackpot win - he is trying to claim his costs from the pensioner.

Rose said: "The appeal is good news. I'm heartened that my case has been recognised as an important point of principle. This is precisely what I have been trying to prove. I'm not in this for any money but the principle that victims should come before criminals is very important to me.

"It's a pity the criminal and the Government seem to be on the other side, opposing me."

anne.pickles@ypn.co.uk

The Court of Appeal hearing is provisionally listed for five days in early February. Rose's case will be heard alongside two others with similar characteristics. One is an appeal from a child sex abuse victim who has also been denied the right to claim reparation from his attacker because of the Limitations Act - which bans any claim after three years.

Successive Home Secretaries have consistently pledged to address the flaws in the Statute of Limitations but have yet to keep those promises.

Both David Blunkett and Charles Clarke admitted the law was wrong, accepting advice given four years ago by the Law Commissioners.

But while the Government continues to drag its feet on changing legislation, victims continue to suffer and violent offenders need do nothing to face responsibility to those whose lives they have ruined.

Compelling

Rose's solicitor Rachel Booth, of DLA Piper, Leeds said: "The permission to appeal and the fact that the Master of the Rolls will hear it is promising. It is clear from the judge granting permission to appeal that Rose's case is seen as one of compelling urgency. Unfortunately, neither Hoare nor the Home Secretary has yet seen it that way."

Rose, who was attacked by Iorworth Hoare in Roundhay Park in broad daylight 18 years ago, was the only one of his many victims personally to give harrowing evidence at his trial - from which he received a life sentence.

Since his early release last year, he has refused to make any out of court settlement on Rose or any of his victims, preferring to drag his resistance and the pensioner through the courts.

In spite of being a multi-millionaire - he earns £30,000 interest a month on his £7m jackpot win - he is trying to claim his costs from the pensioner.

Rose said: "The appeal is good news. I'm heartened that my case has been recognised as an important point of principle. This is precisely what I have been trying to prove. I'm not in this for any money but the principle that victims should come before criminals is very important to me.

"It's a pity the criminal and the Government seem to be on the other side, opposing me."

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