L v. L

[2008] QDC 71

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

L v L  [2008] QDC 71

PARTIES:

L

Applicant

v

L

Respondent

FILE NO/S:

No BD2939 of 2007

DIVISION:

Civil

PROCEEDING:

Application for Criminal Compensation

ORIGINATING COURT:

Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

 25 March 2008

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

29 November 2007, with further affidavit and supplementary outline delivered on 27 February 2008

JUDGE:

Rackemann DCJ

ORDER:

The respondent pay the applicant compensation in the amount of $63,375.00

CATCHWORDS:

Compensation – Criminal Offence Victims Act  - pregnancy terminated by spontaneous miscarriage – mental or nervous shock – adverse impacts – relevance of other contributing factors – relevance of self harming

COUNSEL:

Muirhead (solicitor) for the applicant

No appearance for the respondent 

SOLICITORS: 

Legal Aid Queensland for the applicant

1. The applicant seeks compensation, pursuant to Section 24 of the Criminal Offence Victims Act, against the respondent, her father.  On 29 September 2005 her father was convicted, on his own pleas of guilty, of two counts of incest. 

1. The offences were committed when the applicant was 20 years of age.  They involved two occasions on which her father had sexual intercourse with her.  The first occurred on or about New Year’s Day in 2004.  The second occurred some days or weeks later.  As a consequence, she fell pregnant and subsequently suffered a miscarriage.

1. The offences have had serious impacts upon the applicant, who has had to suffer much in her difficult life.  Those difficulties are set out in her affidavit affirmed on the 20^th of April 2007, which I accept.

1. The applicant was born on the 19^th of February 1983.  Her mother left the family when she was only a couple of months old.  She was raised by her father, who was physically abusive.  Her childhood memories are of sadness and isolation. 

1. When the applicant was about 6 years of age her father started a relationship with a woman who had two children by a previous relationship.  That woman was also physically abusive towards her.  That woman’s former partner sexually molested the applicant.  He was jailed for the offences committed against the applicant and she received a compensation payment under the scheme in New South Wales.

1. From the age of 14 she was sexually abused by her father.  By the time she was 16 she had commenced self harming.  At the same age she moved out of home.  She was physically assaulted by her father on the day that she left.

1. She describes her life thereafter as “chaotic”.  She formed a relationship with a man to whom she fell pregnant.  She gave birth to twins on the 9^th of January 2003.  She thereafter had a falling out with her boyfriend and became a single mother.  She did not cope well with that role and became depressed.  Ultimately, out of desperation, she moved back in to live with her father in April 2003.  By the time the twins were about 6 months of age she had begun to attempt suicide.  One such attempt left her…