A bullied teenager will receive substantial damages and an income for life after a Supreme Court judge found NSW educational authorities failed in their duty of care to deal with playground assaults and bullying.
Benjamin Cox's mother, Angela, sued the State of NSW on behalf of the Hunter Valley teenager.
He will receive at least $220,000 for pain and suffering.
She said the bullying, which started in infants school, had resulted in her son having little education and being unable to work.
Outside court his barrister, Dennis Wheelahan, QC, said the judgement had implications for the education system.
"The implications are that pupils in our school systems who are the subject of this type of conduct [if liability is established] can expect to recover substantial damages as is the case for Benjamin Cox."
In her judgement, delivered today, Justice Carolyn Simpson commented that Mr Cox's "adolescence has been all but destroyed; his adulthood will not be any better. He will never know the satisfaction of employment. He will suffer anxiety and depression, almost certainly, for the rest of his life".
During the case, the judge heard that, while at Woodberry Public School in 1995, Mr Cox was "throttled" by an older boy, and received compensation from the Victims Compensation Tribunal over the attack. By the time he went to high school, his mother said he thought school a "scary proposition".
"He didn't like crowds, he didn't like teachers, didn't like the work," she said.
The court heard Mr Cox, who is now 18, was a virtual recluse. He had only completed schooling up until the end of year 7, and an attempt at home schooling had failed.
His mother said he rarely went out, had no friends, and was on a pension.
"He just locks himself in his room playing PlayStation games," she said.
AAP reports: While the exact amount of damages has not yet been calculated, Mr Cox's legal team expects it to be about $1 million, thought to be a record in a school bullying case.
Today's climax of the case coincided with a Federal Government move to give teachers and principals more power to address schoolyard bullying, and provide parents with more information about discipline, bullying and poor behaviour.
Mr Cox's case might also open the way for substantial damages awards for other bullying victims, lawyers said.
Mrs Cox gave evidence of her son becoming "absolutely petrified" of going to school, particularly after his tormentor tried to strangle him in February 1995.
When she complained about the school's inaction, she said a Department of Education officer told her "bullying builds character".
Her son continued to have nightmares and headaches, cried all the time and developed a severe stutter.
The little boy refused to use public toilets after telling his mother the older pupil jumped out from buildings - including the school toilets - and scared him.
Once she was called to the school office to find her son crying, with a lower tooth missing and a bleeding lip.
He told her the older boy had "tried to shove his jumper down his throat".
Justice Simpson accepted Mr Cox was subjected to "harassment, bullying and assault" at the hands of the other boy.
She also accepted that Mrs Cox made repeated attempts to have the school authorities intervene and control the conduct of the other boy.
"The staff made no attempt to deal with a serious problem," the judge added.
"The school authorities responded quite inadequately to an escalating problem and failed to take such steps as were reasonably required to protect [Mr Cox] from the conduct of a plainly behaviourally disturbed older pupil."
When Mrs Cox took her son out of the school in September 1995, she told the principal she was not going to submit him to any more bullying or hurting.
She said the principal told her: "You lose some kids and keep some."
Justice Simpson accepted psychiatric evidence that Mr Cox had been a "very vulnerable" boy, having a genetic predisposition to depression or other such conditions.
But she also accepted that the bullying was the initiating factor that led to his current condition - variously described as separation anxiety disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
