EXCLUSIVE: Sex abuse victim's anger at "disgusting" compensation decision

By gebrey

A WOMAN who was forced to perform sick sex acts on her perverted stepfather has been told she will not get a penny in compensation.

Wendy King was only five-years-old when her stepdad, Francis Curran, forced her to perform oral sex on him dressed in her mother's fishnet stockings and thigh-high boots.

Now, Mrs King, 46, has been told she is not entitled to make any claim against pervert Curran, because the abuse stopped too early.

A legal loophole means that because Mrs King lived under the same roof as her attacker, and because the abuse happened before 1979, she is not eligible to make a claim.

Mrs King has now labelled the system as "disgusting" and asked "where is the justice?"

She said: "I will be challenging it, I think it is disgusting. I want to get help from Sarah Payne, who is the victim's hero, I need help.

"Where is the justice? We are told as victims to speak out against people like him, then I get told something like this."

Last April, the News covered the court case where the sick facts came to light.

Mrs King waived her right to anonymity and spoke out against her abuser, who subjected her to horrific sex attacks at their family home in Punch Copse, Three Bridges over a period spanning ten years.

The abuse started when Mrs King was just five-years-old in 1966, and ended only when she ran away aged 15 in 1977.

Recalling the abuse, she said: "I remember listening to next door's telly and I would dread the News at Ten coming on.

"When I heard Big Ben chime, I knew he was coming soon."

Curran pleaded guilty and is now behind bars for the attacks.

She said: "The fact I am a historic victim should make no difference. I suffered then and that should be what matters."

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority wrote to Mrs King explaining why she wouldn't receive compensation.

On its website, the authority states: "The injury happened before 1 October 1979 and you and the person who injured you were living together at the time as members of the same family in the same household."

Mrs King said: "They are basically saying that it is not as bad if you were abused in your own home by someone you know.

"It is something neither me nor my husband can get my head around."

Wendy, who now lives in Horsham, has a loving family - husband Anthony, 41, and children Louise, 27, Lee, 24 and Ryan, 22.