Trespasser who fell through roof wins payout of £567,000
By Joanna Bale
A TEENAGE boy who fell through a roof while he was trespassing on private property has received £567,000 in compensation.
Carl Murphy, now 18, sued the owner of a warehouse after suffering serious head injuries when he plunged 40ft to the floor as a nine-year-old in 1996.
Victims of crime groups yesterday reacted angrily to the payout, which is 50 times more than the family of a murder victim can expect to receive from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
Mr Murphy, of Seaforth, Merseyside, suffered brain damage in the accident which was said by doctors to have caused such severe behavioural problems that he was expelled from two schools in the two years after his recovery.
“After all I’ve been through, I feel I really deserve this money,” he said.
Clive Elliott, of the Victims of Crime Trust, said, however, that the payout reflected a massive inconsistency in the payments offered to victims and criminals.
He said: “All rights to compensation should cease the moment that person breaks the law. In victims’ compensation the most a family will receive in a murder case is £11,000. There is a real flaw in the system.
“If the Government makes a gesture by allowing money to go to people who have been wronged, it should equally penalise anybody who does anything wrong when they are claiming.
“Wrongdoers think they are beyond the law, and in this case they can become quite well off by breaking it.”
Mr Murphy fell through the roof of Container Care park in Bootle docks after trespassing with a group of friends.
He was expelled from his primary school in Bootle within a week of returning after the accident, given a home tutor, but that ended when he threatened her with violence. He missed ten months of school before being enrolled at Nugent House, Billinge, a school for children with behavioural problems, in November 1998, but was expelled 18 months later.
His family took the now defunct company to court four years ago, claiming that it should have repaired security fencing to prevent children from playing on the site. Their claim was successful and he received the money on his 18th birthday yesterday.
Mr Murphy is currently living with his grandmother because his mother Diane and her boyfriend, Kevin Parsons, both 36, are serving three years in prison for setting up a heroin and crack cocaine business from their council house.
A neighbour said: “We knew Carl was going to get this money, but it’s frightening a family like that could receive so much.
“There are surely more deserving people out there who would benefit from a payout like that.”
