When you walk into a police station to report a crime, you are placing your trust in the one institution that is supposed to protect you. Most officers honour that trust.
However, when one of those police officers abuses it, the law in New South Wales gives survivors a way to hold not just the individual officer, but the State itself, to account via a civil claim.
What Happened?
In February 2022, our client went to Windsor police station to report a sexual assault. The Detective assigned to help her, Glen Coleman of the NSW Sex Crimes Squad, became the person who harmed her.
Over a period of two months, Coleman used his position of authority and trust, and the proximity it gave him, to assault our client.
Our client spoke out, and Coleman was eventually convicted and sentenced for his crimes of sexual touching and misconduct in public office.
A criminal conviction punishes the offender. On its own, however, it does not compensate the person who was harmed.
That is what a separate civil claim against the State is for, and it is an area of law many survivors do not realise is open to them.
How Can The State Be Liable For A Police Officer’s Crimes?
The State of New South Wales can be held vicariously liable for the wrongful acts of a police officer committed in connection with their role. Vicarious liability means one party is legally responsible for the conduct of another.
Under the Law Reform (Vicarious Liability) Act 1983 (NSW), a serving police officer is treated as a person in the service of the Crown. This means the State can be liable for torts, crimes or abuse, they commit in that capacity. The reasoning is straightforward: the officer only had access to the victim because of their position, their uniform, and the authority that the State gave them. In this case, Coleman was even convicted of misconduct in public office, finding that he abused the very role the State had placed him in.
Where the abuse happens whilst the officer is exercising or relying on their powers, and where the incidents of abuse have taken place inside or using police facilities, then the connection to the role is difficult for the State to deny.
“Survivors are often told the criminal process is the end of the road. It isn’t. A civil claim is a way of shifting the consequences back onto the institution that allowed the harm to happen, and of giving our client a measure of control over how their story continues.”
-Megan Kirk, Senior Associate and Civil Lawyer.
What Compensation Can A Survivor Claim?
Depending on the nature of the harm that a survivor has endured, as every person’s story differs, personal injury damages can potentially be claimed in such matters. These damages, include compensation for:
- Pain and suffering, recognising the physical and/or psychological harm done, both at the time of the abuse and into the future.
- Past and future economic loss, where the abuse has affected the person’s capacity to work.
- Past and future treatment expenses, for costs incurred in treatment of the harm suffered.
- Past and future domestic assistance, for gratuitous or commercial domestic care required as a result of the harm suffered.
- Aggravated damages, recognising the added hurt, embarrassment and humiliation caused by the nature and circumstances surrounding the abuse;
- Exemplary damages, which punish and deter conduct that shows a flagrant disregard for the survivor’s rights.
Every claim is assessed on its own facts, and outcomes vary. The point is that the law recognises abuse by a person in a position of trust as especially serious, and it allows the courts to reflect that in what they award.
Undoubtedly, it is scary to not only speak up, but to fight for the recognition and the rightful compensation for what you have endured.
With the experience, strength, and kindness of our team at O’Brien’s behind you, however, this process becomes a lot less scary.
We have years of experience holding the state accountable for our clients and are ready to fight on your behalf. Read our civil law case studies.
Institutional Betrayal Is A Harm In Its Own Right
There is a particular cruelty in being harmed by the very system you turned to for protection. Psychologists describe this as institutional betrayal, and courts increasingly recognise it as a genuine and lasting injury, not a footnote.
A person who is abused by an officer investigating their complaint does not just suffer the abuse. They can lose trust in police, in the justice system, and in their own judgment for having reached out at all.
That is why claims of this kind are about far more than money. They are about accountability, and about the State being made to answer for what was done under its authority.
Need A Civil Lawyer For Abuse By A Police Officer?
If you have been harmed by a police officer, or by someone who used a position of authority to abuse you, you may have a right to compensation that is entirely separate from any criminal case.
Request initial advice by calling us on (02) 9261 4281 or emailing .
