Emily Woods and Luke Costin, AAP
A “sleazy” volunteer in a trench coat who took photos of barely clothed teen footballers was not evidence enough to prove an AFL club could have foreseen he was a pedophile, a court has been told.
The Western Bulldogs club, formally known as Footscray, launched an appeal against a jury’s negligence finding against it, and a subsequent $5.9 million payout to a child sexual abuse survivor.
It was the largest award that has been paid out to an abuse survivor in Australia.
Adam Kneale, 51, launched legal action against the Melbourne-based club after he suffered abuse between 1984 and 1990 at the hands of fundraising volunteer Graeme Hobbs.
Hobbs, who has since died, first sexually abused Mr Kneale when he was 11 or 12 at an administration building at the club’s home ground in 1984.
Following a four-week trial in Melbourne’s Supreme Court, a jury of six found the Bulldogs were negligent and awarded $5,943,151 in damages, including $3,250,000 for Mr Kneale’s pain and suffering.
However, the Bulldogs maintains the club is not responsible for Mr Kneale’s abuse and argued on Friday for Victoria’s Court of Appeal to overturn the jury’s finding and payout.
Bulldogs barrister Bret Walker SC claimed “red flags” reported to the club’s leadership about Hobbs were not evidence enough to prove he would go onto commit child sexual abuse.
Red flags included Hobbs wearing a trench coat, being a “sleazy character” and involving himself in sexualised locker room chats with teen players, Mr Walker said.
They also involved Hobbs “jokingly” taking photos of young footballers in their hotel rooms while they were semi-unclothed on a trip away.
“It just is not good enough to call in a massive amount of hindsight – the man was a rogue, and therefore it was a red flag to have seen an innocent in his company – there’s nothing more than that,” he told the court.
“If there had been evidence of a fondling, certainly, but there is nothing like it at all.”
But Kneale’s barrister Sam Hay KC said Hobbs’ behaviour – when put in context around 15 or 16-year-old boys – should have seen him removed from the club much earlier than he was, in 1992.
“This is highly inappropriate behaviour for an adult in a locker room context where people are not of age,” he said.
Mr Walker argued the jury were misled by Kneale’s legal team during the trial and said the $5.9 million payout was “manifestly excessive”.
Mr Hay accepted the amount awarded by the jury was high, but said it may be an indication of how the public viewed the nature of his client’s abuse.
“There may be a disconnect between how judges are assessing these losses and how the community is,” he said.
The judges reserved their decision.
Kneale’s lawyers have launched a second claim for another survivor of Hobbs’ abuse against the Bulldogs in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
“My clients are both determined to see this through to the end – it’s been a long road,” lawyer Michael Magazanik told AAP on Thursday.
A Bulldogs spokesman confirmed a statement of claim had been issued against the club relating to allegations from the 1980s.
“The club intends to defend the matter, noting that it treats any allegation of this nature with the utmost seriousness and care for all involved,” he said.
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
