A CHILD abuse victim from York whose ordeal at a children’s home condemned him to a “living hell” hopes a landmark court ruling will finally pave the way to justice.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough has been refused the right to appeal against a ruling that it is responsible for an £8 million compensation claim.

It was found accountable for the claims of up to 170 victims in the UK’s biggest historic child abuse compensation case, covering a litany of sex crimes at the St William’s Community Home in Market Weighton over a 34-year period.

The diocese now has one legal avenue left to pursue if it decides to fight the Court of Appeal’s judgment, which is to appeal directly to the Supreme Court.

One victim, Robert Maxwell, of New Earswick, has waived his right to anonymity to speak out following the decision.

The 61-year-old has suffered five heart attacks which he blames on the trauma of his time at St William’s, which he first arrived at in 1961.

“The memories still haunt me.”

He says he is seeking justice rather than revenge, but believes he will never receive an apology from the Roman Catholic Church.

“When I arrived at the home, there was abuse. Nobody thought of saying anything because we were all too embarrassed or worried about being called a liar, and there was nobody to tell.”

Mr Maxwell said he has a scar under his left eye from where he was kicked in the face – “a daily reminder of what happened” – and says he knows of three men who consequently took their own lives, unable to cope with what they endured.

Another victim, Graham Baverstock, of Bridlington, has also revealed how the systematic abuse he suffered later drove him to self-harm and the brink of suicide.

Now 62, he was 14 when he spent more than a year at home.

He said: “The children, including myself, suffered severe abuse and neglect and on the highest level of deprivation.”

Mr Baverstock was given up by his mother when he was a baby and lived in children’s homes until arriving at St William’s Community Home in 1973.

He is now severely disabled and wheelchair-bound and says he is emotionally and physically scarred by the events that began for him 38 years ago by the former principal of the home, Brother James Carragher.

Carragher was jailed for 14 years in 2004 for a catalogue of sex crimes against pupils.

Solicitor David Greenwood, who is representing 158 of the victims, said he hoped the Middlesbrough Diocese would now work to achieve compensation settlements.