Lee Cheu v Ned

[2005] QSC 34

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Lee Cheu v Ned [2005] QSC 034

PARTIES:

JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER LEE CHEU
(Applicant)
v
JUM NED
(Respondent)

FILE NO/S:

314 of 2003

DIVISION:

Trial

PROCEEDING:

Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court, Cairns

DELIVERED ON:

9 February 2005

DELIVERED AT:

Cairns

HEARING DATE:

Heard on the papers

JUDGE:

Jones J

ORDER:

That the respondent Jum Ned pay the applicant Joseph Christopher Lee Cheu $4,000 by way of criminal compensation.(1)       

(2)The respondent pay the applicant's costs of and incidental to the application to be assessed on the standard basis.       

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – JURISDICTION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – JUDGEMENT AND PUNISHMENT – ORDER FOR CRIMINAL COMPENSATION – where respondent convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm – where applicant suffered both physical injury and nervous shock

Criminal Code 1899 (Qld), Chapter 65A, s663A, s663A(b), s663AA, s663AA(1), s663AA(2) and s663AA(3), s663B(2)

Workers Compensation Act 1916 (Qld), s14(1)(c), s14(1)(C)(a)
WorkCover Queensland Act 1996 (Qld), s167, s167(1)

WorkCover Queensland Regulation 1997 (Qld), Schedule 2

R v Hurle; ex Parte Anderson (1991) 2 Qld Rep 682

Whyte v Robinson [2000] QCA 99, 28/03/00
R v Bennett, ex parte Facer [2001] QCA 395

COUNSEL:

 K McCreanor for the Applicant
 No Appearance by or on behalf of Respondent

SOLICITORS:

 Cape York Legal Service for the Applicant
 No Appearance by or on behalf of Respondent

1. Joseph Lee Cheu makes this application under the (now repealed) section 663B of the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld) for criminal compensation for injuries he sustained on 11 September 1993. The application is made out of time but the delay is explained by the applicant’s lack of knowledge of his right to claim.

1. The respondent has been duly served with this application and the supporting material but has not appeared to make any submissions on the question of compensation.  That being the case, the applicant should have leave to proceed.  Chong v Chong [1999] QCA 314.

1. On 29 April 1994, the respondent Jum Ned pleaded guilty to the offence of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and was sentenced before Mackenzie J in the Supreme Court at Cairns.  He received a sentence of 4 years imprisonment, wholly suspended.

1. At the time of the offence the applicant was 31 years of age.  He had known the respondent for 6 years.  Late in the night of 11 September 1993, the applicant was sitting outside his house in Pormpuraaw, when the respondent shot him with a rifle.  A bullet hit him in the right shoulder.  He was taken to a local clinic where his wounds were stabilised, then flown to Cairns Base Hospital where he was operated on.  The bullet remains in the soft tissue area of the applicant’s right chest.

1. Since the incident the applicant says he has experienced numbness in his right arm, particularly in his elbow and fingers, and feels a constant dull throbbing pain through his right arm.  He also reports psychological symptoms such as problems sleeping and nightmares.  He says he…