SEX SCANDAL GIRL SUES

THE teenage victim in one of Tasmania’s most notorious sexual abuse cases that disgraced an MP is taking legal action.

The woman — who as a 12-year-old ward of the state was prostituted to more than 100 men, including then Elwick MP Terry Martin, right — is suing the State Government for damages.

The case revolves around the Government’s negligence or breach of duty given the girl was under a guardianship order at the time.

Over a period of one month in 2009 the girl was sold to strangers for sex by her mother and the mother’s pimp boyfriend Gary John Devine.

The Supreme Court confirmed proceedings had started. It would not release further details because it had not been to open court and because of the sensitivities around the case.

Talk of legal action on behalf of the girl first arose in 2010 but that action appears to have stalled. Devine and the girl’s mother, who like the victim cannot be identified, placed a newspaper advertisement, soliciting the 12-year-old as an 18-year-old named Angela. It is estimated the girl was sold to more than 100 men but the figure could be as high as 205. The sex acts took place at a rented room at the Midcity Hotel before the operation was moved to Devine’s Glenorchy unit.

Of the possible 200 clients only 19 were identified and only seven agreed to a video recorded interview with police.

For legal reasons, the only person prosecuted for renting the girl was former Glenorchy mayor Terry Martin.

Martin admitted having oral sex with the victim three times — once at Devine’s unit, which he was not charged over, and twice at his home in Claremont where he paid $600 and also took sexualised photos of the girl.

But Martin, who had Parkinsons disease, pleaded not guilty on the basis he thought she was 18 as advertised.

Unlike the other men, who had sex with the girl in Devine’s “dark and dingy” unit, prosecutors argued Martin ought to have known the girl was under 17 given he was with her over an extended time at his well-lit home.

In 2011 the then 54-year-old was found guilty of having sex with a minor and producing child exploitation material and sentenced to 10 months’ jail.

Justice David Porter suspended all but one week of the sentence because he found there was a direct link between Martin’s Parkinsons disease medication and his crimes.

The fallout from the case led to child protection services being heavily criticised.

It was revealed that in the same month she was being prostituted authorities recommended closing her case file.

In a report into the case the then Children’s Commissioner Paul Mason said the recommendation to close her file was a mistake.

Devine was jailed for a decade, as was the mother.