Court to decide compensation for attack victim. Bday of 7 April 2008. 

Photographer Alix Carmichele’s 12-year precedent-setting legal battle to hold the departments of justice and safety and security liable for a vicious attack suffered at the hands of a known sex offender in 1995 goes back to the Cape High Court today, to decide the amount of compensation she is to receive.

Carmichele is seeking compensation of more than R4,6m, including more than R2m for loss of future earnings, after fighting her case all the way to the Constitutional Court. The country’s highest court ruled the departments were liable as police had been warned beforehand about the offender.

The Supreme Court of Appeal had determined the police detective and public prosecutor in Knysna acted negligently when they failed to oppose bail for Francois Coetzee. Carmichele was viciously assaulted at a Knysna beach house in 1995 by Coetzee, who had been convicted of an earlier indecent assault and was at the time facing a charge of raping a teenage girl.

Let out on a warning by a Knysna magistrate, he soon afterwards attacked Carmichele. He was later found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 10 years in jail .

At an October hearing to determine compensation , the state asked for a postponement over an amendment by Carmichele to increase her claim from R2,7m to R4,6m. She initially claimed R177000.

Click here for the Constitutional Court case

Click here for Supreme Court of Appear case.