State accused of bastardry after horrific rapes
07.11.1997
By: KOCH A Source: QNP
A WOMAN raped by several men when she was drunk and asleep had her victims-of-crime compensation wiped out because she was deemed to have ``provoked'' the incident.
In another case, a three-year-old Mornington Island girl who was raped and seriously assaulted had to wait 14 months after the court case before the State Government handed over $127,310 compensation.
The money was paid last Friday after her mother was interviewed by The Courier-Mail.
But the delay has meant the little girl has been denied expert treatment needed to overcome the assaults.
More than 100 cases of bureaucrats rejecting or delaying court-awarded payouts to victims of crime have been identified.
As the evidence mounted, the State Government yesterday vowed to amend ``flawed'' laws that failed to recognise rape as assault.
But Civil Liberties chairman Ian Dearden said the Government's treatment of victims was ``bastardry of the highest order''.
The Bar Association and Queensland Law Society also said Justice Department officials had no place in interfering with payments ordered by judges.
Attorney-General Denver Beanland said yesterday the Justice Department had been prevented by law in paying a social worker raped on Mornington Island any more than $30,000.
A judge had ordered the woman be paid $60,000.
But Opposition Leader Peter Beattie said Mr Beanland had refused to accept the judge's decision and had ordered the amount reduced.
Mr Beattie said that when Labor was in office, the Justice Department had always paid out the amount prescribed by the court.
In one of the most horrific cases, a girl raped when she was three had to wait more than a year after a judge awarded her a compensation payout.
Bureaucrats even refused her mother's request to have access to some of her payout of almost $130,000 to buy her a bicycle for Christmas.
The girl is now seven.
While she would love to run and play with her friends on Mornington Island, she can't..
Her stomach cramps double her up in pain, pain which she has suffered for four years.
The little girl cannot remember the cause of her pain but knows it makes her mother cry and be very sad.
In February, 1994, the three-year-old was asleep in her family's house on the island. Three young men entered the house intent on abducting her mother to rape her, but took the baby instead.
They carried the sleeping child to the beach and attempted unsuccessfully to rape her. She was screaming, crying out for her mother. The men took her back to her bedroom and left her. An examination found no physical damage.
However, the three bragged of their deed to a friend, who entered the house several nights later, again took the child to the beach and dreadfully violated her.
The child's grandmother found her screaming and took her to the hospital. She was flown to Mt Isa for urgent surgery.
The four men were charged with sexual assault and sentenced to jail terms of up to 10 years.
Mt Isa Hospital social worker Lorraine Cottrill described the child's trauma to the court.
``At three and a half years, she is unable to describe what happened verbally, but it will take a lifetime for her to understand her fears and terror of being touched,'' Ms Cottrill said.
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A matter of justice, Page 15
State accused of bastardry in wake of horrific rapes
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``I deal regularly with sexual assaults on women. This case is the worst I have ever been involved with. At this stage it cannot be stated the long term effects that this sexual assault will have on the child, her mother, and the rest of the family,'' Ms Cottrill said.
``Her mother was holding her with tears of pain and distress running down her face,'' she said.
``As a support, at one stage I was holding on to the mother while she was almost collapsing from her sobbing and saying `How could someone do this to my baby'.''
Psychiatrist Ian Curtis said the child would be ``at risk for psychiatric disorders as a result of the major psychological trauma of sexual abuse of her by the adults''.
``She has suffered severe damage which will compound to an unknown extent, but warning signs are already present,'' Dr Curtis said.
``She will need resources in order to be educated in a large, urban centre where remedial, medical and educative facilities will be available.
``I predict that she faces a very difficult formation to adulthood and a sexual, personal and interpersonal life significantly less fruitful and much more painful than it would have been.''
District Court Judge Gil Trafford-Walker said in his decision on victim's compensation that there was a real need for expert assistance so she could cope with the many problems she would face.
He ordered a compensation package of $127,310, bearing in mind there were four attackers. It was to be kept in trust until she was 18, but could be used for urgent matters.
The order was made on September 27 last year. Since then solicitor Tony Bailey had fought the Justice Department who have claimed the award should have been based on one perpetrator and not four.
