Child Abuser Pursuing Victim over Legal Costs

ABC
April 15, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s3985263.htm?site=sydney

MARK COLVIN: It sounds unbelievable, but in New South Wales a convicted child abuser is pursuing his victim for almost $20,000, and the victim says he feels as powerless as when he was being assaulted.

The child abuser is a former school teacher who was employed at the Blue Mountains Grammar School in the early 1970s. Even though he was convicted of molesting his former student, he now wants the victim to pay his legal bill.

Lawyers and a New South Wales politician say the case highlights the need for legal reforms.

Lorna Knowles has the story.

LORNA KNOWLES: Mark Wurth was repeatedly abused at the school by the then-house master and geography teacher, Neville Gilbert Betteridge.

MARK WURTH: He was coming into the dormitory through the infirmary of a night and taking me from my bed.

LORNA KNOWLES: In 2004, Betteridge was convicted of indecently assaulting Mr Wurth and was given a three year suspended jail term. Seven years later, Mr Wurth sued Betteridge and the Anglican Church Diocese, which ran the school at the time, for damages.

The church paid Mr Wurth a confidential settlement and he offered to withdraw his action against Betteridge. But Betteridge is now demanding that Mr Wurth pay his legal costs.

MARK WURTH: I was just, you're joking, you know? Like when does a victim pay a perpetrator's costs? And I was shocked. It's very similar to how I felt when he was abusing me as a kid. I got no control. I'm just made to do what he says. There's nothing I can do.

LORNA KNOWLES: Betteridge declined to comment, but his barrister told PM he was entitled to seek costs under court rules.

The Anglican Church is calling on Betteridge to drop his claim against Mr Wurth. In a statement to PM, a church spokesman said:

CHURCH SPOKESMAN (voiceover): In this case, the pain and distress of these incidents are obvious long after the events took place. It seems absurd there is now an action by the perpetrator to recover costs from the victim in relation to the separate claim made against him. We would urge that this action be dropped and Mr Wurth be spared further anguish in court proceedings.

LORNA KNOWLES: New South Wales Greens MP David Shoebridge has been supporting Mark Wurth through his legal case. Mr Shoebridge says before the settlement, the Anglican Church had relied on the so-called 'Ellis defence', arguing it was not a legal entity which could be sued.

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: I am pretty sure most people would have thought some of these legal defences are being limited to just the Catholic Church. But what we have seen here, astoundingly, is the Anglican Church using the exact same legal shenanigans, legal ruse, to avoid paying fair compensation. They are saying that the school doesn't exist in law.

LORNA KNOWLES: Mr Shoebridge is also alarmed that the church said it did not have insurance to cover Mr Wurth's claim.

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: It is surprising that the state government hasn't recognised the extent of the problem and be demanding that all private schools, all Catholic schools, all independent schools, as a basic element of their registration, have adequate insurance or adequate assets to meet these kinds of claims.

Because without that comfort it is difficult to know how anyone can rest assured when they leave their kids in their hands over the school day.

LORNA KNOWLES: Sydney barrister Dr Andrew Morrison is head of the Australian Lawyers Alliance. The group has made a submission to the Royal Commission on Child Sexual Abuse, calling for legal reforms to better protect victims.

ANDREW MORRISON: There must be a legal entity capable of being sued, in respect of all organisations of substantial size which care for children. There must be in respect of organisations such as the Roman Catholic Church which has avoided its liability through the Ellis defence in the past - a period when the limitation problem is lifted to allow former claimants to sue.

The legal entity which is created must exist retrospectively, so that unlike the offer Cardinal Pell made at the Royal Commission to create an entity for the future, the thousands of victims who have come forward to the Royal Commission will have a remedy.

LORNA KNOWLES: But any changes to the law will come too late for Mark Wurth.

MARK WURTH: So the settlement I got from the Anglican Church is just getting eaten away. It seems like the settlement was just here to feed the legal profession.

MARK COLVIN: Mark Wurth, ending that report by Lorna Knowles.