'Stolen Generation' Aborigine wins test case

Australian aborigines renewed their calls yesterday for an official apology to members of the "Stolen Generation", following a landmark payout to a man taken from his family when he was a baby.

Bruce Trevorrow, 50, was awarded A$525,000 (£220,000) by the South Australian Supreme Court as compensation for a lifetime of problems, including depression, alcoholism and the loss of his cultural identity. The court found that the state government had removed him from his parents without their consent in 1957.

Mr Trevorrow is one of about 100,000 mainly mixed-race children who suffered that fate, as a result of official assimilation policies that were only abandoned in 1975. Members of the Stolen Generation have been seeking compensation since 1997, when a national inquiry found many of them had suffered long-term psychological effects. Mr Trevorrow is the first successful litigant.

The size of the award astonished observers, and was welcomed as a breakthrough. Lawyers predicted a flood of similar claims, while aboriginal leaders repeated their long-standing call for an apology from the government over the issue.

Mr Trevorrow was taken to an Adelaide hospital with stomach pains when he was 13 months old. Hospital staff falsely recorded that he was an orphan and was neglected and malnourished. Two weeks later, he was given to a white woman who became his foster mother. Mr Trevorrow did not see his real mother again for 10 years, by which time his father was dead. The court heard he had experienced chronic insecurity and mental health problems and had difficulty holding down a job. He had been treated with tranquilisers and anti-depressants since the age of 10.

The judge, Thomas Gray, ruled that the state government falsely imprisoned him as a child and failed in its duty of care.

Mr Trevorrow said afterwards: "I thought that we would never get here. But the day's come when I've got the peace of mind to start my life." Lawyers urged state governments to set up funds to compensate members of the Stolen Generation, rather than forcing them to go take legal action.

Julian Burnside, QC, who represented Mr Trevorrow, said: "It's time for them (the states) to set out a compensation plan. It's more sensible to do it in a way that is consensual, rather than by litigation."

But legal experts warned it was difficult for litigants to prove they had suffered as a consequence of being removed from their families. In Mr Trevorrow's case, he contrasted his experiences with those of his siblings, who had fuller lives.