Abstract:
Five children, sexually abused by a perpetrator known to them, were recently
denied compensatory redress under the Victims Support and Rehabilitation Act
1996 (NSW) (' VSRA ').1 The children were unsuccessful because the NSW Court
of Appeal held they had not provided evidence of their injuries. The case arose
out of the introduction of 'offence-based' sexual assault provisions into the New
South Wales criminal injuries compensation scheme.
The term 'offence-based' refers to an approach that primarily assesses the
amount of compensation on the basis of the criminal seriousness of the
perpetrator's conduct rather than the severity of the victim's injuries.' The
purpose of introducing an offence-based approach for this group of victims, this
note argues, was to reduce the arduous nature of the application process, thereby
signalling a timely recognition of the historical discrimination faced by victims
of sexual abuse in accessing the scheme. The inadequate drafting of the
provisions had however led to uncertainty amongst practitioners and academics
alike regarding the requirement to provide proof of injury. 3
