Caroline specialises in child abuse litigation including:

• Church abuse
• Institutional abuse with specialist experience
• Abuse in detention centres
• Abuse in children’s homes
• Local authority negligence and breaches of the Human Rights Act
• Foster care abuse
• Actions against the police

Caroline has specialist expertise in pursuing cases against detention centres for assaults against detainees committed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Alongside the wider Abuse team, Caroline has helped over 400 men get compensation for the assaults they were subjected to at many other detention centres and we are now focusing our aim at getting compensation for the men assaulted at the Eastwood Park detention centre .

HMP Eastwood Park, Falfield, South Gloucestershire was a junior Detention Centre for boys, opened from 1964 till 1995. There have been numerous allegations of abuse by Prison Officers at this detention centre.

Among the abusive former prison officers, Patrick Devaney was convicted of offences against detainees in 2023.  We act for over 100 men who suffered physical and sometimes sexual abuse at Eastwood Park.

It has been confirmed that the Eastwood Park Detention Centre Compensation Scheme is shortly due to commence following a meeting with the Ministry of Justice. Compensation will be paid to ex-detainees who were physically abused / assaulted whilst serving their sentence. Find out more here.

 Caroline is a Legal Aid supervising solicitor and a member of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers. She is also Assistant Coroner in Bradford.

APPROACH

Caroline is an experienced child abuse solicitor having worked in this area since 2000. Her caring and sensitive approach to her clients and determination to achieve justice for survivors has brought closure to many individuals who have been through the most horrendous abuse.

EXPERIENCE

Caroline has been the point of contact for the young offender institution complaints for the team, including Medomsley Detention Centre, Kirk Levington and Eastwood Park. She successfully negotiated the first non-adversarial scheme with the Ministry of Justice to compensate individuals who were mistreated during their sentence and continues to campaign for survivors of abuse.