How Can I Claim For Marital Rape, Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence?

Marital rape is often overlooked or simply disregarded by many. A study of 4,000 adults found that over a quarter think forced sex within marriage is not rape. This could not be more wrong, and we are going to look at how you can claim for marital rape and sexual abuse through the CICA.

Marital rape and domestic abuse/violence often come hand in hand. It is rare that we see marital rape without the physical violence, and due to this survivors often don’t realise what they’ve been subjected to until months or even years afterwards. Often, it takes someone else telling them ‘you’ve been a victim of rape’. Because in a marriage you don’t expect your partner to hurt you like that. Survivors often are not even in denial, it is just simply not understanding what has occurred.

Consent is consent. Regardless of whether you are married, co-habiting, seeing one another or engaging in a one night stand. If an individual was to be raped by someone they had only just met on a night out, they would understand immediately what happened. However, with marital rape survivors, the confusion surrounding how someone they have known for years breaching their trust and personal boundaries, often clouds their ability to understand what has happened, meaning it is often not reported to the police as soon as other aspects, such as domestic violence.

The CICA doesn’t have a special criteria for marital rape, it would be categorised under the rape and sexual assault section of the scheme. This means we would look at the subsection of claim value starting at around £11,000 minimum going all the way up to £44,000. We will look into these figures a little more later in the article. First, let’s look at how marital rape is identified.

Taking that first step and going to the police about suffering any kind of domestic abuse takes a huge amount of courage and bravery. However, taking it further and discuss the sexual aspect to the crime takes it to a whole other level. The most crucial way to tell if you have suffered marital rape is to ask yourself if at any time you ever felt uncomfortable, pushed, coerced, begged or gaslighted into performing and engaging in sexual relations. Even if you said no 10 times and yes on the 11th time, it is still rape. Sadly, a portion of marital rape often happens while the individual is sleeping. Once it has been reported to the police, they will pursue the matter as both a domestic and sexual crime. 

Now let’s take a look at the type of evidence the CICA would need. When making a CICA claim for any crime that has a sexual aspect the CICA always give the applicant the option to choose whether they would like the CICA to use just police evidence, or police and evidence to make a decision. The reason being is that police evidence can sometimes allow for a quicker settlement, but with a potentially lower payout as the CICA are only assessing one type of evidence. Whereas police and medical can take slightly longer to assess but could aid a higher payout due to there being more evidence to consider.

Generally, you would only chose the police and medical evidence option if you had some form of physical injury that required treatment (Pregnancy, STD or Internal damage) or some form of mental injury that required treatment by a psychologist or psychiatrist. If the police evidence only option is chosen, the evidence requested would consist of the police report which would include statements and reports and maybe a forensic exam (If one was carried out). If medical and police evidence is chosen, the CICA would request the above, plus health and mental health records depending on the type of injury suffered. Remember, to claim for mental injuries, you must have received treatment and/or a diagnosis from a Psychiatrist or Psychologist, as a GP is not qualified enough in the view of the CICA.

Let’s move on to looking at the different levels of claims you can make for rape and sexual abuse. As detailed in the CICA scheme, we will look at each one below:

• One incident of rape – £11,000
• One incident of rape involving 2 or more attackers – £13,500
• Repeated incidents of rape up to 3 years – £16,500
• Repeated incidents of rape of 3 years or more – £22,000
• Repeated incidents resulting in serious internal injuries – £22,000
• Incident/s resulting in disabling mental illness confirmed by a Psych specialist – (Moderate) £22,000 (Severe) £27,000
• Incident/s resulting in serious internal injuries and in disabling mental illness confirmed by a Psych specialist – (Moderate) £33,000 (Severe) £44,000

It is also worth understanding that there are other injuries you can claim for as a result of rape and sexual abuse. Pregnancy, STI’s, HIV and loss of foetus are all claimable for under the CICA scheme, providing they are as a direct result of a criminal injury. These injuries are not subjected to the multiple injury formula, where generally the second and third listed injuries are only awarded at 30% and 15% of the total normal amount. This means that if an individual was to experience marital rape that last for 2 years, and became pregnant, then they would be able to claim 100% of the compensation total for the repeated rape (£16,500) and 100% total of the pregnancy (£5,500) as opposed to only 30%. 

If you are a survivor of marital rape or abuse, please contact us today. We can confidentially discuss your case details via telephone, email or chat, whatever you are most comfortable with, and assess your case prospects. We can look at your case factors and provide you with an estimated compensation total and advice/support on the next steps.

Sexual abuse cases can take anywhere between 6 to 24 months. CICA sexual abuse claims can take around 6 to 12 months from the date of the submission to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. However, There are a number of outside organisations which we must rely upon for providing the evidence to CICA to support your case, such as police and medical agencies.

CICA claims might take longer in some cases. Sometimes in sexual abuse compensation claims, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) may decide to prosecute the assailant. If they do decide to prosecute, then the police report is not normally released until the trial is over. This can delay a compensation offer by a number of months. However, you do not need to wait until the trial is over, meaning you can apply for compensation before the outcome is determined.

For more information or for any advice, please call Criminal Injury Solicitors on 0333 996 9988 or email us on info@criminalinjurysolicitor.co.uk.