Peter Ellis web site - Christchurch crèche case
	ACC Compensation for Sex Abuse - Index
	2002 Index
	Marlborough Express January 9, 2002 Abuse of compensation Editorial In Blenheim letter boxes yesterday appeared a flyer alerting people to a Christchurch legal firm's preparedness to act in seeking ACC financial compensation for victims of sexual abuse, writes The Marlborough Express in an editorial. The move is audacious but at least the flyer, reportedly sent to a million New Zealand homes, has alerted us to the latest twist in the absurd dance of political correctness. ACC has confirmed the pamphlet's claims that payments can be made to a maximum of around $175,000 - without the police or courts having assessed the veracity of the sexual abuse allegations. Instead, ACC will from April 1 make such payments if it accepts the word of someone alleging sexual abuse - and their counsellor or doctor. Let's be clear. Sexual abuse is very real and present in every suburb, perhaps most streets in New Zealand. Even acts which courts may assess as being of a relatively minor nature can have a severe impact on a person, especially a child. Usually the offenders are known and trusted family members or friends. The trouble is that not every allegation of sexual abuse is true. There are plenty of examples where courts have found that complainants have made up claims. While nothing may be more devastating to a young life than being sexually molested, nothing can destroy someone so much as being accused of sexual abuse. There are very real problems in accepting the advice of counsellors who are treating those claiming sexual abuse. Not unnaturally, counsellors tend to be very sympathetic to their patients, who in most cases are indeed victims. But not always so. A leading child psychologist was fined and censured last November for botching a sex abuse investigation that left a man wrongly accused of molesting his young children. Prue Vincent had pleaded guilty to charges of conduct unbecoming after allowing the mother to be present at interviews with the children, using leading questions, accepting the mother's testimony "without question", not interviewing the father as a reference source. The father had spent $82,000 proclaiming his innocence and trying to get access to his now estranged children. ACC proposes to restore lump-sum compensation for sexual assaults, abolished in 1993. There were 13,000 such payments for sexual assault that year; when compensation started in 1988 there were 221. While any victim of sexual abuse deserves every sympathy and support, the potential for the payments to be abused is wide-open. If these are legitimate, what about those who've suffered physical though not sexual assaults? ACC's plan to accept claims of sexual abuse - without the need to contact the police or name the alleged perpetrator - will undoubtedly cause a deluge of applications. Perhaps the next category of victims seeking compensation will be those falsely accused of being sexual abusers.