ACC refuses to help victim of serial rapist

National Party ACC spokesman Katherine Rich

The latest victim of serial rapist Akeel Hassan Abbas Al Baiiaty has been denied compensation from ACC, which says she did not suffer a long-term injury.

Al Baiiaty was sentenced last week to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of seven years.

The Iraqi refugee came to NZ in 1994, and in 1997 raped two Auckland prostitutes and assaulted another with a knife intent on raping her too.

Only weeks after he was released from his nine-year prison sentence for those offences he moved into a hostel where the latest victim was staying. He dragged her into his room and raped her.

He was not removed from New Zealand after his previous jail term because he had New Zealand citizenship. That has now been revoked.

The latest victim, who cannot be named, applied for compensation on the basis of post-traumatic stress and anxiety problems caused by the rape.

She had wanted to seek counselling with any money she received and sought a lump-sum payment, but was declined because there was no permanent injury.

After the attack she was seen by a doctor who specialised in women who were attacked.

A Wellington District Court jury was told the victim's thighs were so badly bruised she was barely able to walk and had an internal laceration that bled for some time. She had the worst injuries of her kind that the doctor had seen.

The victim said she felt permanently changed by the attack and needed some help.

She said ACC did not offer any advice or support in her case. She is a student and seriously out of pocket for doctors' bills.

National Party ACC spokesman Katherine Rich said that if that was the case, ACC had some "pretty big apologies" to make to the woman.

ACC refuses to comment on individual cases.

Compensation law expert John Miller said he was very surprised that ACC had rejected her out of hand.

He said it was shocking in a situation where there had been a sexual violation.

Some effort should have been made to ensure the victim was getting help.

Ms Rich wants to know why the corporation did not consider the woman's injuries sufficiently serious to entitle her to ACC help when those same injuries were rated by a doctor as the worst he had ever seen.

Ms Rich said last night that even if the woman was attacked before a 2002 law change, she could still be eligible for "a huge amount of support".

She said ACC must launch an internal investigation into the woman's case, particularly as the corporation spent more than $7 million on compensation pay-outs last year and $6.5m on counselling.

Compensation:

The options ACC can accept a claim for the mental effects of sexual abuse or sexual assault if there is evidence of:

* A mental injury such as depression; and

* The mental injury is caused by the sexual abuse events.

Source: ACC website.