Louisiana jury awards $1.1bn to woman who sued over childhood molestation in 1960s

‘Lookback law’ allowed Pamela Lockridge to seek damages against late stepfather who abused her starting at age four

A north-west Louisiana jury recently awarded a staggering $1.1bn in damages to a woman who sued over childhood sexual molestation at the hands of her late stepfather in the 1960s and 1970s – a verdict that the plaintiff says “sends a message that children are precious” and “deserve protection”.

The outcome in Pamela Elaine Lockridge’s lawsuit caused waves among Louisiana’s legal community, illustrating how much civil juries are willing to award to plaintiffs for cases tried under the state’s so-called “lookback law”.

Passed in 2021 and upheld as constitutional in 2024 , that law temporarily eliminated filing deadlines for lawsuits involving child molestation which happened long ago, giving survivors like Lockridge – whose late abuser at one point confirmed that he molested her – an opportunity to pursue damages.

Lockridge’s lead attorney, Ryan Gatti, said neither he nor his client were expecting to ultimately collect the full award from her abuser Leroy Edwards’s estate. Gatti said he instead was anticipating reaching an undisclosed settlement with Edwards’s estate, which in such a circumstance would forgo appealing against the verdict.

Nonetheless, Gatti said the verdict which Lockridge won has in effect “made it too expensive to come to our state and abuse a child”.

“This case was never about money,” Lockridge separately said in a statement. “It was about truth. It was about accountability. It was about finally being heard.”

Jurors in Bossier parish – Louisiana’s word for county – found Edwards subjected Lockridge to criminal sexual molestation for 14 years beginning when she was aged four in 1962. Edwards, the second husband of Lockridge’s mother, kept her quiet for years by threatening to kill her if she ever reported the abuse.

Lockridge, an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, eventually requested that Edwards pay for her to receive mental health counseling. He responded by obtaining a restraining order against her in 2011.

In the process, he admitted to the Bossier sheriff’s department that he indeed molested his ex-wife’s daughter when she was a minor. But too many years had passed for him to be able to be legally prosecuted for that abuse.

When Lockridge sued him for damages in 2012, he successfully moved for the case to be dismissed by arguing that the filing deadline for such a civil action had long passed under Louisiana law in effect at the time.

Louisiana’s passage of a lookback law and its survival of a constitutional challenge gave Lockridge a viable opportunity to pursue damages from the estate of Edwards, who died in 2023. So Lockridge availed herself of that opportunity, filing a lawsuit contending that she was owed for the lifelong trauma he had inflicted on her.

That lawsuit culminated in a two-day trial that began with jury selection on Monday. After hearing from a sheriff’s detective, a pair of mental health professionals and Lockridge’s husband of 43 years, Mark, jurors deliberated for about two hours on Tuesday.

Their subsequent verdict awarded Lockridge $500m for pain and suffering, $600m in punitive damages and $585,000 for past as well as future medical and psychological treatment expenses.

A little less than a year earlier, in the first case tried under Louisiana’s lookback law, a federal jury in New Orleans ordered the Holy Cross Catholic religious order to pay $2.4m in damages to a man who reported childhood sexual abuse by one of its members in the late 1960s.

Gatti, a former Louisiana state legislator, said Lockridge’s case was the first he had tried in 26 years as an attorney. He said he had asked the trial jury to send two messages with its verdict: “that survivors who have lived in silence and shame deserve to be heard and honored; and … that the passage of time does not erase accountability for those who sexually abuse children”.

Meanwhile, Lockridge said she felt “for the first time in a very long time … that justice has finally spoken”.

She added: “I also hope this verdict sends a message that children are precious, families deserve protection, and that time does not erase responsibility for those who abuse the vulnerable.”

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org . In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood ( Napac ) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International