An Application Under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1983 and Rebecca Nicole Brown [1995] ACTSC 15 (9 March 1995)

SUPREME COURT OF THE ACT

AN APPLICATION UNDER THE CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION ACT 1983 and REBECCA
NICOLE BROWN
No. CIC245 of 1994
Number of pages - 3
Criminal Injuries Compensation

COURT

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
MASTER A HOGAN

CATCHWORDS

Criminal Injuries Compensation - Assessment - Sexual abuse by father - Post traumatic stress disorder - No issue of principle.

HEARING

CANBERRA, 2 February 1995
9:3:1995

Counsel for the Applicant: Ms H. Cory

Instructing Solicitors: Legal Aid Office (ACT)

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr K. Holmes

Instructing Solicitors: ACT Government Solicitor

ORDER

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
Compensation be awarded to the applicant in the sum of $30,554.00.

DECISION

MASTER A HOGAN This is an application for compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act (1983).

2. On 19 July 1993 the applicant's father was committed to stand trial in this Court on a number of offences of sexual misconduct relating to the applicant from the time when she was six to the time when she was eleven years of age. She is now seventeen.

3. On 19 August 1994 he was acquitted by the jury of all charges then outstanding against him.

4. On 2 February 1995 I made an order prohibiting the publication of any material likely to lead to the identification of the applicant or of the person charged with the offences relating to her.

5. It is not necessary to recount the detail of the incidents set out in the long and detailed records of the conversations she had with Detective Sergeant Fiona Crombie and Constable Charmaine Quade in August 1992 and 9 June 1993. The applicant gave evidence on oath in open Court at the trial, and was cross-examined in detail about the incidents.

6. The evidence on this application was not contested, and I am satisfied that the criminal conduct of which the applicant complained did occur, and that she is entitled to an award of compensation under this Act.

7. The applicant was born in Arnhem Land, where her father was a teacher. When she was about three he was sentenced to imprisonment for molesting children, and her mother brought her and her elder brother to Canberra. Her mother divorced her father in 1982.

8. After her father also returned to Canberra, her mother allowed him unlimited access to the children. He had remarried, and she entered into a stable de facto relationship. The family moved to Adelaide and Brisbane. The applicant's father moved to Hervey Bay, in Queensland.

9. When she was eleven she went to live with her father, but the arrangement lasted only three weeks.

10. Shortly afterwards the applicant's mother separated from her partner, and returned with the two children to Canberra. There, at the end of 1989, after she had seen a counsellor at the Incest Centre, the applicant told her mother about one incident of indecent assault that had occurred at Hervey Bay. Her mother then, for the first time, had told her about the offences that her father had committed in Perth in 1981. Her mother wanted her to cease any contact with her father. She and her mother were not living happily together. She spent some time with her grandparents, before returning home to her mother in 1991. She resumed contact with her father, but her mother noticed her increasingly angry behaviour, and sought counselling assistance. The charges against him arose out of the disclosures she made during that process.

11. There is a report in evidence from Annabel Wyndham, social worker and unit manager with the Child at Risk Unit at Woden Valley Hospital. Her professional qualifications are not in evidence, but there was no objection raised to her report. She had a number of assessment interviews with the applicant, from April to September 1993, followed by further counselling interviews.

12. The applicant presented to her as a highly emotional, depressed young person, who expressed considerable fear and anxiety. In her opinion the impact of the sexual abuse had been extensive, affecting adversely the applicant's self esteem and capacity for relationships.

13. Her solicitor referred her for assessment to Dr Saboisky, consultant psychiatrist, who saw her on 4 May 1994. He also read the report from Annabel Wyndham and the records of interview. In his considered opinion she had suffered significant psychological effects as a result of the sexual abuse. He made a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder. His prognosis was that her symptoms were likely to continue, and that she would benefit from further therapy. She appeared to have benefited from the counselling from Annabel Wyndham.

14. Although the effects of the injury she had suffered only came to notice in recent years, it is clear from her mother's evidence that she must have been suffering, silently and alone, over her early teenage years. I infer that the difficulties in her relationship with her mother have largely been the result. The length of time over which she has suffered is, of course, a very relevant consideration in making an award.

15. For her pain and suffering I award $30,000.00. The expenses of bringing the application are $554.00. I award compensation to the applicant of $30,554.00.