Compo scope widens

Mark Oberhardt

January 02, 2007 11:00pm

A JUDGE'S ruling could allow more victims of child sex offences to sue for compensation on the higher civil court scale.

It is believed to be the first case involving legal argument on whether a guilty plea to sexual misconduct could be the basis for extending the time in which civil damages actions can be brought.

District Court judge John Robertson extended the time in which a woman could sue her father for mental or nervous shock.

Many sexual abuse victims from decades ago had previously sued only for criminal compensation because they had no basis to extend an expired limitation period to bring a damages action in the civil courts.

The court was told a father sexually abused his daughter, then aged nine to 10 years, between July 1976 and January 1978. It was not until 2004 that she made a complaint to police, and last month her father pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent dealing.

The woman would have been restricted to a maximum $5000 payout had she sought criminal compensation. She elected to sue in a civil court under common law, which meant she was restricted by a limitation that ran out in 1988.

The woman went to the District Court in Maroochydore seeking the limitation period be extended to last month.

Under Queensland law, a limitation period can be extended provided applicants show there is new material.

Lawyers for the woman argued her father pleading guilty was a "material fact of decisive character" she did not have until December 2005.

In a written judgment available yesterday, Judge Robertson said no one had found any other decided case where the "material fact of a decisive nature" was a guilty plea by the defendant.

He said that in his opinion the woman proved the onus on her to provide a material fact. The matter will go to a civil hearing.