LT v RT

Introduction 1The plaintiff claims damages from the defendant who is her father arising from his committing serious sexual assaults against her from the time she was four or five years old until the time she was 13 years old. He has admitted his guilt to a series of charges preferred against him and is now in gaol following a sentence of imprisonment passed upon him earlier this year by another Judge of the District Court of New South Wales. 2The plaintiff is an attractive, though fragile and distressed woman of 54 years. The Statement of Claim rolls up all the sexual assaults in a single cause of action which is particularised. This, as a matter of pleading, is clearly wrong since each individual assault was a separate tort and in respect of each one there is a separate cause of action. However, that will not have any effect on the outcome of the proceedings. I attach a schedule of the various offences committed on the plaintiff by the defendant. All are serious offences. Carnal knowledge of a child under the age of 10 years rendered the perpetrator liable to a sentence of life imprisonment. The offender could also have been charged with rape, which also carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. 3The defendant pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 10 years, when he was brought before the District Court for sentence and has failed to file any defence in the current civil proceedings. As a result, there judgment was entered against him and I am required to assess damages. 4The plaintiff seeks general damages as compensation for the wrong she suffered and aggravated general damages because of the nature of the sexual assaults. She does not seek exemplary damages because the defendant is serving a term of imprisonment and exemplary damages cannot be awarded to her (See Gray v the Motor Accident Commission (1998-1999 196 CLR 1.)

Consideration 19In my opinion, she has an entitlement to common law damages of a very high level. She has given evidence, which I accept, that she has had a very disrupted adult life. She married a man she knew to be a homosexual and whom she did not love and had a daughter who committed suicide at the age of 17 years. Her husband, who was a solicitor, was involved with a wealthy homosexual man in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. That man was murdered. There have been two Coronial enquiries, but no conclusive finding has been made as to who carried out the murder. Her husband was indicted and convicted for fraud in connection with the deceased man's will. 20She has now married another man and appears to be happy with him, but is afraid that he will leave her because she is fat and unattractive. This belief obviously relates back to her father's continually telling her that she was fat and unattractive. To my eyes, she is beautiful and quite slender. 21She failed to get a Higher School Certificate and I am certain that this was because of her disrupted schooling caused by the abuse of her by the defendant. She commenced work as a nurse, but abandoned it. She even went to work in her father's company and whilst there had a traumatic miscarriage. 22Her working life was very disrupted and it took some time before she could commence studies as a teacher and then become a teacher in the state education system. I accept that the disruptions in her life that caused her to embark on this career later then she should have done resulted from the abuse she suffered at the hands of the defendant. One of the consequences of her starting a teaching career so late was that she could not join the State Superannuation Scheme, which was closed to new members in 1985. She did not become a teacher until after that. 23She has also been promoted twice to the rank of Assistant Principal and then has lost the position because of her emotional inability to continue. I am satisfied that this results from the sexual and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of the defendant. 24The consequences of physical and sexual abuse are always serious and there is no doubt that the victims of abuse are often affected for many years. They feel shame, guilt and a profound sense of worthlessness. They ask the questions; "Why me? Am I so worthless?". Very many of them do not speak about these events for many years. In her case, what made her decide to come forward was a realisation that her father, who had remarried, had a child of about four years of age. She worried that her father would abuse this child, just as he abused her. Evidence was produced at the sentencing hearing that her father had abused sexually two young half sisters of the plaintiff. This occurred overseas and he was not charged with these offences 25I have dealt with many paedophiles during 13 years of conducting criminal trials and sentencing offenders. Many of them commit offences against many victims. It is not possible to understand why a man would sexually abuse and physically abuse his own daughter. However, he has caused her immense damage that is scarcely capable of being redressed by an award of damages. His conduct is worse than that of any other father I have encountered. 26She is entitled to substantial damages and I award her $400,000 general damages. I attribute two thirds of the damages to the past. She is entitled to interest on the past general damages. 27She is also entitled to damages for loss of earning capacity, past and future, loss of superannuation benefits, past and future, past and future out of pocket expenses.

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