A LANDMARK legal victory by an abuse victim from York has been overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Businessman Kevin Young was allowed by a judge last year to press ahead with legal action against the Home Office and the Roman Catholic Church over alleged abuse at two centres when he was a youngster, including St Camillus children's home, near Tadcaster.

The decision was set to pave the way for thousands of others to sue for compensation.

The Government and church had tried to block the claim on the grounds that too much time had passed since the offences were alleged to have taken place. Under the 1980 Limitation Act, claims need to be lodged within three years of an attack.

But Mr Young successfully argued at Leeds County Court that he had been so badly affected psychologically that he had not fully realised the significance of any injury until much later.

His solicitor, David Greenwood, argued there was provision in the Act to allow people to pursue claims from a "date of knowledge".

But now Appeal Court judges have dealt him a bitter blow by ruling that he had left it too late to sue and was thus not entitled to a penny in compensation.

The court heard that two days before Christmas in 1996, Mr Young had been walking through the centre of York when he slipped on some snow and literally collided with Nevile Husband, who had abused him.

He was plunged into a state of anger and distress in which he lost all confidence but, in 2003, he launched legal action against the Home Office and Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) which ran the institutions where he was allegedly abused. But Lord Justice Dyson, sitting with Lord Justice Buxton and Sir Peter Gibson, ruled that he must have known by the time of his chance meeting with Husband in 1996 that he had suffered a "significant injury" and the three-year legal time limit ran from then.

Husband was convicted in 2003 of abusing Mr Young at a detention centre in County Durham. Mr Young also claims he was abused at St Camillus.