P v R

[2010] QSC 139

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

P v R [2010] QSC 139

PARTIES:

P
(plaintiff)
v
R
(defendant)

FILE NO:

BS 2593 of 2009

DIVISION:

Trial Division

PROCEEDING:

Trial

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court of Queensland

DELIVERED ON:

6 May 2010

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

30 April 2010

JUDGE:

Daubney J

ORDER:

1.   There will be judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $439,937.04.

2.   I will hear further submissions as to costs.

CATCHWORDS:

DAMAGES –GENERAL PRINCIPLES – GENERAL AND SPECIAL DAMAGES - where plaintiff has claimed damages for personal injuries resulting from sexual assaults committed on her by the defendant when she was a child – where judgment had been entered for the plaintiff with damages to be assessed – assessment of quantum of damages to be awarded – whether the amount claimed is appropriate in all the circumstances

DAMAGES – GENERAL PRINCIPLES – EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE AND AGGRAVATED DAMAGES - - where plaintiff has claimed damages for personal injuries resulting from sexual assaults committed on her by the defendant when she was a child – whether exemplary and aggravated damages should be awarded

K v G [2010] QSC 13, applied
Paten v Bale [1999] QSC 265, distinguished
Uren v John Fairfax & Sons (1966) 117 CLR 118, cited

COUNSEL:

C Heyworth-Smith for the plaintiff
No appearance for the defendant

SOLICITORS:

Murphy Schmidt Solicitors for the plaintiff

1. The plaintiff has claimed damages for personal injuries resulting from sexual assaults committed on her by the defendant.  The proceeding was commenced by claim and statement of claim filed on 11 March 2009.  Judgment was entered for the plaintiff on 22 December 2009, with damages to be assessed.  The hearing before me, at which the defendant did not appear, was for assessment of those damages.

1. The plaintiff was born in March 1989.  The assaults occurred in 1997, when she was eight years old.  The plaintiff’s parents divorced in 1996 and the plaintiff thereafter had access with her father every second weekend and for half of every school holiday.  Between April and September 1997 she spent every Tuesday night at her father’s house and from September 1997 until December 1997 she spent either Tuesday or Thursday night at his house.  The defendant was, during this time, the plaintiff’s father’s housemate.  He had been a family friend for many years.

1. The statement of claim particularises six instances of sexual assault by the defendant on the plaintiff between mid-1997 and December 1997.  In view of judgment having been entered against the defendant, it is appropriate to take these matters pleaded in the statement of claim as being not in issue. 

1. The first three of the six pleaded incidents followed the same course, namely the plaintiff was in bed, the defendant entered her room, she pretended to be asleep, the defendant would pull down her pyjamas or boxer shorts and either put his index finger into her vagina or touch her vagina with his index finger, after which he would pull her pyjamas or…