By Helen Sullivan
Tues 23rd, 2021

Australian law allows victims who were assaulted overseas to claim compensation, but provision has never been used

A Cambodian victim of an Australian child sexual abuse offender has launched a claim for compensation through the Australian courts, in the first case of its kind.

In January, 47-year-old Australian Geoffrey William Moyle pleaded guilty to 11 offences, eight of which related to the sexual abuse of children overseas aged between 10 and 12. The eight offences occurred in Cambodia between 2002 and 2005.

Moyle is awaiting sentencing in the South Australian district court. He is next expected to appear in court in March.
For abuse victims to apply for reparations, the offender must have been convicted and compensation must be sought from the offender, who in many cases has few assets.

In Moyle’s case, investigators working with “international law enforcement partners”, according to a spokesperson for the South Australia police, were able to identify and locate the victims, one of whom is being represented free of charge by Jonathan Wells QC. Moyle has pleaded guilty, and has assets including a house in Adelaid

Dr Michael Salter, the Scientia associate professor of criminology at the University of New South Wales and chair of a national child sexual abuse material working group, said the decision was a “unique and important” one.

“I think we need to be realistic about just how difficult it is for victims overseas. And there are many, many victims,” he said.

Dr Melissa Curley, a political science and international relations lecturer at the University of Queensland who has been researching the sexual exploitation of children in south-east Asia for a decade, said it would be “very significant” if the victim was granted compensation.

As well as setting a precedent, she said, it would “send a message that there is a recognition of the suffering and the harm done to victims by this type of offending”.

Figures for the extent of child sexual abuse by travellers in Cambodia are difficult to establish, but the Cambodian organisation Action Pour Les Enfants found that Australians made up 8% of 142 arrests of foreigners in cases of child sexual abuse offences by foreigners, the BBC reported.

full. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/fe ... ian-courts

The rest of the story on the Geoffrey Moyle thread : newsworthy/south-australian-geoffrey-mo ... 35739.html