ANU: John XXIII College to pay $420k over woman’s rape
The Australian National University’s John XXIII College failed in its duty of care to a rape victim, with a Supreme Court judge slamming the institution in his damning verdict.
Canberra Star
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A prestigious university college notorious for its frat house-style drinking culture and sexual misconduct has been ordered to pay more than $420,000 over its mishandling of a woman’s rape.
Australian National University’s John XXIII College was on Friday ordered to pay the compensation to a former resident, despite doggedly defending the case at trial.
In a scathing judgment, ACT Supreme Court justice Michael Elkaim said: “I had the distinct impression that the (college) guarded its reputation as a hard drinking, good living establishment as a badge of honour …”
The woman was among 80 or 90 residents who went to an unsanctioned “pub golf” drinking event in August 2015, where students were required to drink a minimum “par” of drinks.
Many students were so drunk they were vomiting in rooms and hallways before even leaving the college for the first drinking “hole”.
The woman was raped in an alleyway behind Canberra bar Mooseheads, after becoming so drunk she could neither remember nor give consent, and only found out she had been raped when the man responsible — whose name is suppressed — began joking about his sexual conquest.
Justice Elkaim found the college was “well aware of the appalling conduct that characterised the ‘pub golf’ event, and others like it, but by … feigned ignorance, condoned the conduct”.
In a meeting with the college’s then-head, Geoff Johnston, the woman was told it was a “concern how you managed to get that drunk”, and that it was unlikely the man raped her because “sometimes when boys are drunk they … are underperformers”.
The woman denied “lecturing” Mr Johnston by saying “a woman has a right to go out and get drunk if she wants to”, which Justice Elkaim accepted, but said: “had she made the remarks, they would have been entirely justified”.
Justice Elkaim said it was “mystifying” why the chairman of the college board, John Harris, offered to take the woman’s parents to the alleyway where their daughter was raped when they complained about Mr Johnston’s mishandling of the complaint.
Justice Elkaim said of the ‘pub golf’ night: “there were bins for alcohol and bins for vomiting. People vomited into sinks even though they had been told not to. The same applied to urination”.
“The picture painted by (a former student) of alcoholic consumption and misbehaviour within John’s was so vivid that the college management must have been aware of it,” Justice Elkaim said.
“It seems to have even approved some of it …”
In its handling of the case, the college “was influenced by its desire to protect the reputation of the college at the expense of the (woman’s) welfare”.
The case returns to court later this month, where the woman’s lawyers will argue the college should pay a higher portion of her legal fees than is usually awarded.
