Ten years after the police investigation first started, Manchester council last month offered £2.25 million in compensation to 168 claimants alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered in children’s homes in the Manchester area. It is the biggest case of its kind, although the average payout is £15,000. One 44-year-old former resident dismissed his £33,000 award as “…disgusting, pathetic. For all the years I’ve suffered since I was first abused at the age of seven, that works out at less than 20p a day for every day. [For the price of a] third of a pint of milk, every day I live with the scars of sexual, physical and mental abuse.”