Historical abuse generally refers to abuse that happened as a child to a person who is now an adult, but also refers any abuse that happened many years or a long time ago even if a person was not under 18 when the abuse occured.

Yes, you can!

It is never too late to report abuse. In fact, it is probably more common for people to report abuse occurring in childhood many years later.

Children rarely speak up about sexual abuse or physical abuse they are suffering and detection and reporting of abuse of a child often relies on an adult or professional being alerted or suspecting abuse and taking action.

The police and other agencies take all reports of sexual and physical abuse seriously, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

This may be used to describe a series of sexual or physical assaults, each of which taken as single incident still amounts to an assault. It can also be used to describe a series of actions which when taken alone may not objectively be considered harmful or abusive but when looked at as a whole present a different picture. An example of this may be a pattern of acts which amount to harassment.

We also often see patterns of abuse in domestic violence situations. It is widely accepted that there does not need to be any physical assaults and psychological abuse, threats, intimidation and control can amount to domestic violence.

Our institutional sexual abuse compensation claims calculator gives an indication as to what compensation you could claim.

Grooming is something that we are all concerned about as parents. Child grooming is described as befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child and then using that to manipulate the child often into performing sexual acts. Sometimes the child will be rewarded with gift, money and affection.

The child may be misled or tricked into believing that they are having a consensual relationship or that what they are doing or is being done to them is ok.

Sexual grooming of children and young people can also occur on the internet with abusers often posing as a person of a similar age, often taking on a totally different identity. They may encourage the young person to send sexual images or engage in sexual conversation.

Grooming also often leads to the abuser try to meet up with the young person after they have built a relationship and gained their trust.

Yes of course. It is not just children that can be tricked and manipulated. We often see grooming of adults occurring in situations where one person has power of the other whether they be by reason of their position or status. Here are some examples of the types of cases we have dealt with where an adult has been groomed:

• A vicar grooming a member of the congregation
• A choirmaster grooming a member of the choir
• A doctor grooming a patient