An Application Under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1983 Tammy-Jo Vincent [1995] ACTSC 78 (20 July 1995)

SUPREME COURT OF THE ACT

AN APPLICATION UNDER THE CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION ACT 1983
TAMMY-JO VINCENT
No. CIC 262 of 1994
Number of pages - 2
Criminal Injuries Compensation

COURT

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

CATCHWORDS

Criminal Injuries Compensation - Indecent Assault on a minor - Psychological effects - Need for further counselling - Final award of compensation.

HEARING

CANBERRA, 8 June 1995
20:7:1995

Counsel for the Applicant: Mr N. Headland

Instructing Solicitors: Gilpin and Associates

Counsel for the Territory: Mr K. Holmes

Instructing Solicitors: ACT Government Solicitor

ORDER

1. A final award of compensation be granted to the Applicant in the sum of $20,544.20.
2. The award is to be paid into Court.
3. The sum of $544.20 is to be paid out the Applicant's solicitors; the balance is to be paid to the Public Trustee to be dealt with in accordance with the Public Trustee Act.

DECISION

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

2. On 4 September 1992 Phillip Andrew Vincent, the stepfather of the applicant, was convicted in this Court on 7 counts of indecency against her. The offences were alleged to have occurred in 1991, when the applicant was aged 14 years. Initially the offender was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment, suspended upon a bond, but on appeal he was ordered to serve 9 months before release.

3. The applicant will be 18 on 29 September 1995. After she disclosed to her mother the offences that had been committed against her, she went to live with her grandmother. After a number of moves she has, since late last year, lived alone in a rented flat.

4. Dr Howe, a general practitioner, had been her doctor for 13 years. In 1992 he noted indications of obsessive behaviour, and referred her for counselling. She was initially seen by Janet Berger, a social worker with the Women's Health Service. She noted disturbance in the applicant's schooling, and complaints of depression, anxiety and lack of confidence.

5. On 9 March 1995, I made an interim award of $10,000. Since then, on 31 May 1995, she has been examined by Dr Tym, consultant psychiatrist. His report contains the following comments:

"She is, somewhat prematurely, emotionally, socially and
economically independent of parenting and adult authority figures.
By virtue of this early-attained attribute she is less vulnerable
to sexual and other exploitation than are most other young women of
her age.
Obviously her experiences of assault by a parent figure, followed
by separation from both parents, and subsequently followed by
intensive counselling aimed towards making her relatively
psychologically invulnerable, have left her in good stead viz
emotional self-defence; she is, in this regard, better equipped
than is her own mother, in my clinical judgment.
She has forfeited, per force, many family-life experiences that a
more ideal childhood would have provided, but she has experienced
some extra 'caring' and some 'family cohesiveness' from her
maternal grand-mother. She has also forfeited, per force,
considerable amount of appropriate schooling.

The physical assaults themselves have not left her with
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or any other mental disorder, in my
clinical judgment.
Living alone, as she does, she wisely checks on her flat before
going to bed - she looks to see that there are no intruders in
cupboards or under beds; this behaviour is a 'once bitten, twice
shy' mental phenomena and not an obsessive or compulsive mental
disorder phenomena, in my view.
As one significant, but remote sequala of the assaults she has, in
the months and years following, experienced considerable and
long-term humiliation from acquaintances, relatives and friends -
this amounts to significant 'psychological stress'."

6. His report then set out the statistically increased chances of her developing problems in later life. He concluded:

"In this client's case, continuing, though infrequent, psychological
and/or psychiatric surveillance, with immediate access to help and
advice at any time it is felt to be necessary (either by the client
or her carers) is appropriate for the foreseeable future as a
prophylactic measure against the development and/or persistence of
psychological, behavioural and/or mental health abnormalities."

7. Her strength of character is such that she has been harmed less than would usually be expected from the gross breach of trust and physical violation to which she was subjected, on a number of occasions and over a period of time at which she was particularly vulnerable.

8. I assess compensation for her pain and suffering at $30,000. The costs of bringing the application are $544.20. I therefore make a final award of compensation of $20,544.20.

9. The interim award has been paid to the Public Trustee. Despite the short period involved before she is of full age, I direct that this award be paid into Court. I direct the payment out of $544.20 to the solicitors for the applicant. I direct the balance to be paid to the Public Trustee to be dealt with in accordance with the Public Trustee Act.