An Application Under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1983 and Tracey Narelle Roberts [1995] ACTSC 99 (31 August 1995)

SUPREME COURT OF THE ACT

AN APPLICATION UNDER THE CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION ACT 1983 AND TRACEY
NARELLE ROBERTS
No. CIC118 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 - Abduction at knifepoint - Assault - Robbery - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - On-going counselling.

HEARING

CANBERRA, 24 August 1995
31:8:1995

Counsel for the Applicant: Mrs B. Campbell-Hakes

Instructing Solicitors: Ken Johnston Bedford and Co

Counsel for the Territory: Mr K. Holmes

Instructing Solicitors: ACT Government Solicitor

ORDER

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
An award of compensation be made in the sum of $20,520.00.

DECISION

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

2. On 13 February 1985 Debra Darlene Malcolm was convicted in this Court on one count of abducting the applicant and one of assaulting and robbing her. She was sentenced to imprisonment for two years, suspended upon her entering into a bond.

3. On 6 September 1983 the applicant was working as a shop assistant in premises known as the Contented Cow at Woden Plaza. She was then about 17 years of age. During the morning she went to the toilet, and while she was washing her hands Malcolm came up to her, held a knife to her neck and demanded all the money that she had. She held the applicant captive there for some time, hiding the knife when a friend came in. She threatened to use the knife on the applicant if she needed to, and that she intended to keep her and use her as protection.

4. Using the threat of the knife she made the applicant walk in front of her while they went to a number of other places. The applicant was made to ring her workplace and tell her friends that she had been abducted. Shortly after 5.30 p.m. she was taken back to her workplace, where another employee was forced to hand over money. She was then taken away to a nearby tavern, where she was rescued by police and Malcolm was arrested.

5. The following day she attended her general practitioner and told him that she had been abducted and held at knife point, but did not seek any treatment about the results of the incident. She seems to have thought that she did not suffer any results. She saw her doctor on 8 subsequent occasions over the next six months for matters unrelated to the assault. The clinical notes however disclose that she complained of depression because of work on 17 March 1984.

6. She was not then aware that she had any entitlement to compensation, and when she discovered that there was a system for obtaining it she was advised by the Legal Aid Office that her application would be too far out of time to have reasonable chance of success. That advice proved to be mistaken, and on 8 July 1994 she was granted an extension of time for bringing this application.

7. She was referred for assessment to Mr. O'Sullivan, psychologist, who saw her first in April 1994. She had 15 consultations with him during 1994, and a report that he prepared in December 1994 is in evidence.

8. The history that he obtained was that she had never returned to work at the Contented Cow, but had worked at a McDonald's restaurant until being accepted as a recruit in the RAAF. She had married in 1985, and had two children, born in 1985 and 1990. She had separated from her husband in 1991, and was living in Geelong with her two sons. She was unemployed.

9. She had begun to suffer recurring nightmares from the date of the assault. She was still frightened of going to a public toilet. She had been terrified and afraid for her life during the assault. She had been unwilling to talk about the incident to anyone. In the opinion of Mr. O'Sullivan she had suffered a severe post traumatic stress disorder, which, because it had not been diagnosed or treated, had become chronic. His opinion also was that her failure to seek treatment immediately after the assault was quite consistent with her condition. He thought that the prognosis was poor in the short term, but that with skilled intensive treatment it would be fair. She would always remain vulnerable to further psychological trauma. He expected that treatment would be intensive for about 1 year, and then extend over a further 2 years.

10. The cost of treatment during 1994 was $2044. Future costs are estimated at $3000. The expenses of bringing the application are agreed at $476. For her pain and suffering I award $15000.

11. I award compensation to the applicant in the sum of $20520.