A woman left unsupervised at Canberra Hospital with a fellow patient who sexually assaulted her will be paid $267,000 by the ACT Government, after suing for negligence.
The woman's ordeal began in December 2013, when she was admitted to the Emergency Medical Unit at Canberra Hospital suffering from salmonella poisoning.
The man given the bed next to her was drunk, disruptive, and verbally abusive to staff and other people around him upon his arrival.
Delivering a judgement on the case in the ACT Supreme Court Justice Michael Elkaim described his behaviour as indicating "very foreseeable danger".
However, the woman was left unsupervised in the bed next to the man, and fell asleep after taking painkillers.
She later woke to the offender standing over her, with her gown pulled up and his hand between her legs.
Woman suffered PTSD after assault
The offender later pleaded guilty to the assault.
After the assault the woman suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, which affected her earning capacity and left her requiring psychiatric care.
Justice Elkaim found that the man's behaviour was a clear warning sign that he was a danger to other patients, and should have either been kept separate from them or been closely supervised.
"[The offender] should not have been in that ward and he should not have been so unsupervised that he was capable of freely molesting other patients," he wrote in his judgement.
He described the decision by staff to do neither as a clear case of negligence.
"The warnings to the defendant stemming from [the offender's] conduct upon and after his admission were such that he simply should not have been placed in the same ward as the plaintiff (as well as the other patients in the ward)."
"In my view, the duty owed by the hospital to the plaintiff was to ensure that she would be treated in a safe environment, free from foreseeable dangers."
The court awarded the victim $267,000 in damages, and ordered the ACT to cover her legal costs.
