A terminally ill Tasmanian woman has been awarded more than $1.6 million after the Supreme Court found she was raped by her high school accounting teacher in 1981, when she was 16.
Justice Stephen Estcourt handed down the judgment this week, ordering the State of Tasmania and former teacher Stephen Fane Noga to pay $1,644,817.03 in damages.
The woman was a Year 12 student at Hobart Matriculation College when Noga, then 31 and her accounting teacher, raped her at a Hobart hotel in May or June 1981.
Justice Estcourt rejected Noga’s denials and described him as “a thoroughly untruthful witness”.
“It might have been that, in his own mind, Noga had planned and was executing a bold romantic seduction of a young woman, but what resulted was the callous raping of a child,” Estcourt said.
The woman has since been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a terminal illness with a life expectancy of three to five years.
The court awarded her $275,000 for pain and suffering, $150,000 in aggravated damages and $200,000 in exemplary damages.
She was also awarded $800,000 for lost earning capacity, $54,305.03 for past and future medical expenses and $165,512.10 in interest.
Justice Estcourt found the rape caused the woman to develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder, derailing her career and personal life for decades.
The judge accepted evidence from a psychiatrist that the abuse was the main cause of her psychiatric injuries.
The State of Tasmania was found vicariously liable for Noga’s conduct while the woman was a student, but was not found to have breached its own duty of care.
Exemplary damages were awarded because Noga had never faced criminal punishment for his actions.
Aggravated damages were partly awarded because Noga’s legal team accused the woman of lying to fraudulently obtain compensation during cross-examination.
Both Noga and the state have been ordered to jointly pay $1,444,817.03, with Noga ordered to pay a further $200,000 in exemplary damages himself.
