Woman abused by Chichester schoolteacher is denied compensation

Kim Mitchell said she does not think Sussex Police did enough when she reported her abuse to them twice

A woman abused by her Chichester schoolteacher when she was just eight years old has been denied Government compensation.

Kim Mitchell says this is just another example of how the system has failed her.

She has bravely waived her right to anonymity to tell the Observer her story.

Kim, now 36, said: “As a child I was happy, innocent and trusting, just as a little girl should be.

Norman Hogbin was jailed for indecent assault last year. Picture: Sussex Police

“The events of that evening at Littlemead School impacted every single aspect of my life. I am angry, bitter, resentful and hateful, unable to respect authority in the way I was taught as a child.”

Littlemead School was a boarding school in Oving. It closed down in 2006 due to poor numbers.

Kim said she has spent her life being denied justice.

“I feel like I am constantly being kicked while I am already down. It’s just one thing after another.”

Kim Mitchell has bravely come forward to tell her story

When she bravely stood up as a child and told people that PE teacher Norman Hogbin abused her in 1990, Sussex Police and social services did not do enough, she said.

When she reported it to police again in 2012 she said she was ‘fobbed off’ because too much time had passed.

It was only after Kim moved to South Shields and contacted Northumbria Police in 2015 that Hogbin was then brought to justice.

He was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 2017 for one count of indecent assault against Kim. This was raised to three years after Kim appealed, the CPS has confirmed.

South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck wants to change the law on compensation NEP-180323-150338010

She sought Government compensation but was shocked that a technicality means she will get nothing.

Kim was previously given community service after she was convicted of ‘using of threatening language or behaviour in a public place’ in a wages dispute.

She said she regrets the incident and said her anger issues stemmed from the crime she suffered as a child.

Kim did her community service but did not know the conviction would be unspent for another year. For this reason her claim was rejected and she can never reapply.

Sussex Police said they are glad she finally has justice

Kim said this unfairly affects people like her: “I never had a criminal record when I was eight years old.

“John Venables had taxpayers’ money to change his identity, surely we deserve something from the Government saying ‘sorry the system failed you’?”