Marjorie Flora Dutton [1991] ACTSC 81 (4 October 1991)

SUPREME COURT OF THE ACT

MARJORIE FLORA DUTTON
S.C. No. C.I.C. 27 of 1990
Criminal Injuries Compensation

COURT

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Master A. Hogan(1)

CATCHWORDS

Criminal Injuries Compensation - Armed Robbery - Bank Teller - Post traumatic stress disorder - Chronic anxiety state with phobic features - Fluctuating reactive depression - Ongoing psychotherapy.

HEARING

CANBERRA
4:10:1991

ORDER

Compensation be awarded for the criminal injury in the sum of $18,000.

The amount of $814.00 be awarded for the costs of bringing the application.

DECISION

This is an application for compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1983.

2. On 16 June 1989 one Duncan Cruise pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to a charge of armed robbery, and was committed for sentence to this Court, where on 24 August 1989 he was arraigned and adhered to that plea.

3. I therefore have jurisdiction under s.11(1) of the Act and 0.61A r1.01(k) of the Rules.

4. The applicant was a teller on duty at the Commonwealth Bank at its Bunda Street branch in Civic when Cruise committed that offence. He came to the counter where she was serving and handed her a note which read, "I have a .22 rifle in my bag, I want $3,000." He showed her the top of a bag.

5. She activated an alarm, as he said to her, "You'd better believe it, it's for real". She was terrified. She stepped back and showed the note to the manager, who went to a telephone. Cruise then jumped over the counter with a bayonet in his hand. He threatened her with it. He took some money from an open cash drawer, jumped back over the counter and ran out of the Bank.

6. Later she went to the police station to make a statement. She took the next day off work, and returned to work the following Monday. She found that she was very nervous, and had difficulty concentrating.

7. She had interviews with an occupational nurse, and with a psychologist employed by the Bank. The circumstances of the attack and of those interviews left her with the feeling, whether justifiably or not does not matter in this application, that she was not getting the support that she needed from her employer.

8. She consulted her doctor 5 days later, exhibiting to him signs and symptoms of an anxiety reaction. She consulted him on 8 further occasions between then and March 1990.

9. She received workers' compensation payments in respect of 16 days absence from work. The Bank also met the cost of consultations with Dr Cochrane, Mr Fox and Mr Sutton, Psychologists and the Florey Medical Centre. The payments made by the Bank in connection with the incident totalled $2,312.00.

10. In January 1990, while she was at work, 4 young men wearing stockings over their heads staged a mock attack upon the Bank. She was of course terrified by the happening, and her recovery from the original injury was set back considerably.

11. Since no charges were laid in respect of that incident, I have no jurisdiction to award compensation for the injury that directly resulted from it. This illustrates again the defect in the structure of s.11 of the Act, which prevents any one tribunal from having jurisdiction where the total injury results from separate criminal activities, unless prosecutions are all brought in the one Court or there is no prosecution at all. Again I urge reform of the legislation.

12. However, I do take into account the fact that the original injury made the applicant much more susceptible to injury from such an incident, which without it might not have affected her at all, or would certainly not have affected her to the same extent.

13. As a result of the psychologist's advice she changed to a different branch of the Bank. Her anxiety continued.

14. In March 1991 she resigned from the Bank, and is now engaged in home duties. She continues to be nervous, and news reports of robberies upset her. She does not feel she is getting any better.

15. I take into account the number of counselling sessions that she has needed, while bearing in mind that I must not award compensation for the injury flowing directly from the incident in January 1990.

16. Dr Veness, a consultant psychiatrist, diagnosed in December 1990 a post traumatic stress disorder characterised by chronic anxiety state with phobic features and fluctuating reactive depression. There is no reason to doubt the signs and symptoms that she described and demonstrated to him and upon which he based that diagnosis. I accept it as accurate.

17. In his opinion she needs ongoing psychotherapy and counselling in addition to specific desensitisation treatment. He suspects that with treatment it would take about two years to affect a substantial recovery, and much longer without treatment. He estimates the cost of treatment at about $5,000.

18. I award compensation for the criminal injury in the sum of $18,000. I award $814.00 for the costs of bringing the application.