‘Never surrender’: Beaumaris school sex abuse victim gets record $8 million payout

A Victorian man awarded a record $8 million compensation for child sex abuse in a government school has urged other survivors to avoid the state’s “Kmart, cut price” redress system.

Lawyers for the man, who was abused by notorious paedophile Darrell Ray at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1970s, say the state should brace for more big payouts following the settlement.

The Education Department, which faces hundreds of claims by former students against Victorian schools over historical abuse, settled the long-running legal claim just a week before the case was to be heard in the Supreme Court.

The Age revealed in August that the state had already paid out a total of $34 million to victims of another offender, John Henry Reynolds, who is in jail for sexually abusing 38 children over three decades at state primary schools across north and central Victoria.

Ray, who had previously been jailed for abusing students in his care, died late last year, aged 82. He was facing fresh charges over historical sex crimes at the time.

The lawyer for the survivor in the Beaumaris case, Michael Magazanik of Rightside Legal, said the payout to his client was the largest in such a case in Australian legal history.

“What happened at Beaumaris Primary was appalling - a black spot in Victorian history,” Magazanik told The Age on Thursday.

“The real consequence is in the vast number of lives damaged and ruined – but there’s also a financial price tag for the government, which is enormous and growing.

“In every claim we’re going to get our clients the biggest measure of justice, which includes the biggest possible compensation sum. That money pays for medical and psychological treatment and housing and support.”

The Education Department has been contacted for comment.

The Victorian government has vowed to establish a statewide independent truth-telling process for victim-survivors of sexual abuse at government schools before 2000, in response to recommendations by the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry.

But the victim told other survivors they should avoid official redress schemes and instead hire their own private lawyers.

“Do yourself a favour and get a lawyer who can fight,” the man said in a statement.

“Never surrender to the State of Victoria – their sole aim is to give you as little money as they can. You can beat them - insist on a fair and proper outcome.

“And don’t go the government’s redress scheme. It’s a Kmart, cut-price system for abuse survivors with a maximum of $150,000. If you take any money from redress your legal rights to other compensation goes up in smoke.”

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