Bulldogs’ payout to sex-abuse victim halved on appeal to $2.6m

A landmark sexual abuse payout of $5.9 million has been more than halved after the Western Bulldogs Football Club appealed an order to pay a survivor of historic child abuse.

The Western Bulldogs, formerly Footscray Football Club, had appealed the multimillion-dollar sum awarded to Adam Kneale by a jury last year for abuse he suffered at the hands of a club volunteer – the largest payout to an abuse survivor in Australia.

Kneale, who was abused by volunteer Graeme Hobbs, declined to speak publicly before he read the court’s judgment, but his lawyer, Michael Magazanik, said outside court the verdict was a landmark win for sexual abuse damages, despite the significant reduction in the award.

Magazanik said the revised $2.6 million payout was still a win because the Court of Appeal rejected the rest of the AFL club’s claims.

“What this judgment underlines is that the Western Bulldogs allowed a paedophile to freely roam the premises, groom kids, abuse kids and destroy lives, and now the Bulldogs are going to pay a hefty price for that failure,” he said.

“That underlines the impact that sexual abuse has on survivors, and is a recognition by the court of the grievous wrong done to Adam as a child at the Western Bulldogs.

“The Bulldogs have dragged him through a two-year court process. They’re trying to deny this abuse survivor, a man who has a conviction against the Bulldog staffer, to try and deny him a single cent.”

Kneale, 51, launched legal action against the Bulldogs after he suffered abuse between 1984 and 1990 at the hands of Hobbs, who has since died.