LISTENING, LISTEN TO YOUR WISE SELF, LET YOUR INNER COMPASS DIRECT THE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE.
Pedophile wins payout after bashingBy Zoe TaylorSeptember 24, 2004
FORMER teacher Peter Andrew Bujdoso, jailed for molesting a 14-year-old boy, has seen a denial for compensation overturned after he was bashed in his Sydney prison cell by an angry gang.Bujdoso refused offers of special protection from fellow inmates at Silverwater jail, despite their known hatred of "rock spiders".
The refusal was a mistake. One night, a gang of men forced the lock on his cell and battered him.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court overturned an earlier judicial refusal to grant him compensation. The 52-year-old appealed after his first attempt to get a payout was snubbed by a District Court judge, who said he did not deserve it.
The Supreme Court found the corrective services department failed in its duty to protect him, despite him refusing an offer of special protection.
The case was referred back to the District Court - which can award damages of up to $750,000 - to make a decision on compensation on a date yet to be set. Bujdoso will also have his court costs paid.
He was jailed for 2½years in February 1990 after admitting to three counts of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy.
He was transferred to Silverwater in May 1991 and three months later received an anonymous threat. He made a written statement in which he claimed that, despite verbal abuse, he did not feel in any danger.
In early September Bujdoso started a job and was moved to a fenced-off area where prisoners had keys to their own rooms.
He told the court he believed the prisoners would not risk losing work and weekend release status by attacking him.
But later that month, three or four men in balaclavas forced the "flimsy" lock on his door and bashed him. Bujdoso spent five days in hospital with a fractured skull and broken left thumb.
He was moved to another prison before being released in August 1992.
Supreme Court Justice David Ipp overturned the District Court decision and ruled that corrective services had failed to protect Bujdoso.
The number of officers on overnight duty in the area had been reduced from two to one before the attack, there had been a history of problems, including prisoners returning drunk and trying to smuggle booze and drugs, and an inmate had been firebombed.
Weapons including knuckledusters and metal bars had been confiscated.
Justice Ipp said no action was taken despite known risks to Bujdoso's safety. "Nothing was done. In my view that was negligent," he concluded.
NO COMMENT FROM ME TILL I SEE HOW MUCH HE IS AWARDED.
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