A FORMER taxi driver who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy in the back seat of his taxi at Adamstown in 2011 says he can’t understand why the teenager received victims’ support compensation, and not him.
Adam Wayne Budrodeen, 48, told a tribunal he should receive victims’ compensation because he was allegedly bashed three times while in jail after pleading guilty to the sexual assault, and lost teeth as a result.
Budrodeen appealed against an attempt by the NSW Commissioner of Victims Rights to recover $25,000 from him after his victim was awarded $25,000 under the state victims’ compensation scheme.
He told the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal he was being “provoked” by the NSW Government which was trying to reclaim the amount. He said he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
The tribunal heard Budrodeen sexually assaulted the 15-year-old during a short taxi trip from Islington to Hamilton at 7.30 on a Sunday night. Budrodeen stopped the taxi at Adamstown and asked the teenager if he was gay. He ordered the teenager to the back seat of the taxi before performing a sex act on him.
Budrodeen was sentenced to three years’ jail, with a minimum sentence of one year and eight months.
The tribunal was told his victim continued to experience negative impacts from the incident and remained in an “extremely fragile mental state… as a result of this act of violence”.
The tribunal dismissed Budrodeen’s submission that the offence was consensual, noting the boy was below the age of consent of 16, and that his conviction was a “complete set up” by police, the criminal justice system and the NSW Government.
In July, 2017 the office of the Commissioner of Victims’ Rights reduced Budrodeen's liability to repay the government’s $25,000 compensation to his teenage victim, noting Budrodeen “appears to be suffering from ongoing mental health issues, consisting of paranoid schizophrenia”.
Enforcing the order would “severely damage his emotional and psychological health”, the Commissioner’s office found, before reducing the liability to $15,000.
The Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week reduced the liability to $10,000, payable at a rate of $100 per month.
