A former resident of a notorious home for Stolen Generations children has successfully sued the federal government and a religious group for sexual abuse he suffered in their care.
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.
The man's legal team says the outcome opens another avenue for former residents of Retta Dixon — a Darwin-based care home that mainly housed Indigenous children removed from their families — to seek compensation.
It concluded a years-long legal battle brought by the man in his 50s, who did not wish to be named.
The home was the focus of a 2014 leg of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse that heard graphic details of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated against children in the home before it closed in 1980.
While other former residents have previously received compensation through a class action, the man launched a civil lawsuit seeking compensation for sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of other boys at the home as a young child.
Documents filed in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 2020 alleged he was "helpless and powerless to resist" abuse that was "repeated in a violent and destructive way on numerous occasions".
Court records show the legal action, brought by law firm Maurice Blackburn against the Commonwealth and Australian Indigenous Ministries (AIM), concluded in July.
Associate Heather Kerley said her client was compensated after the parties reached agreement in a court-ordered mediation process.
"It was a strongly fought case to say the least, both by us but more importantly by my client," she said.
"We can't underestimate how difficult it is for survivors of abuse to go through this type of legal process and what this means now through his strength and through this precedent is that other survivors won't have to."
While the settlement is confidential, earlier documents show he had been seeking more than $1 million.
Case sets precedent for others to follow
The civil lawsuit alleged both the government, which was responsible for children in the home, and the church group, then known as Aborigines Inland Mission, had breached their duty of care to the complainant.
Australian Indigenous Ministries had denied it was the same entity as Aborigines Inland Mission and the federal government denied it was vicariously liable for staff at the home.
However, Ms Kerley said her legal team successfully established Australian Indigenous Ministries is a successor of the earlier organisation, setting a precedent she described as a "landmark" abuse law judgement.
"This coupled with the recent legislated amendments makes it a lot easier for survivors from Retta Dixon and similar institutions to sue institutions and hold them accountable," she said.
"We need to be focused on the fact that there's a survivor of abuse here, and legal avenues need to be open to them to pursue compensation without unnecessary hurdles."
Legislative changes that passed NT Parliament in May are intended to make it easier for survivors to pursue civil lawsuits, including by preventing institutions from avoiding historical claims on legal technicalities such as name changes and restructures.
Sex abuse survivors who lived at the home are separately eligible for claims under the National Redress Scheme, but that bars them from further civil action.
AIM declined to comment given the confidential settlement.
The federal government did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
