WARNING: Graphic
An ex-Sydney cinema boss and convicted pedophile has been ordered to pay more than $1.3m in damages to a man he sexually abused in the 1980s.
Former Kogarah and Hurstville Mecca owner Philip William Doyle, 79, was sued by the man who a court was told sustained lifelong injuries as a result of sexual assaults that took place in 1986 and 1987.
Court documents state the man was around 15 years old when the abuse began after Doyle started masturbating him in the bedroom of a South Cronulla unit.
The man was later abused again at Doyle’s San Souci home when Doyle took him into a small room where he developed photos.
“You would make a good model, you have nice skin,” Doyle told the man who posed in tight Speedos and was driven to Kurnell beach where he was masturbated in the back of Doyle’s ute.
The court was told that Doyle and the man were in bed together on another occasion when Doyle again started to masturbate the man.
Doyle left the man physically repulsed when he asked the man to “do the thing I like” and “kiss my c**k”.
The last incident the court was told about involved Doyle giving the man and his friends beer, taking them to his home where they played pool and masturbated while he watched.
According to court documents, the man lost interest in school, stopped playing sports, became unhealthily thin and appeared angry towards everyone after Doyle abused him.
“He felt dirty and disgusted with himself and he carried shame,” NSW Supreme Court Justice David Davies said.
“He said his level of confidence in himself and his identity began to crumble.”
The court was told the man became addicted to cigarettes, pornography and alcohol.
Justice Davies said he considered the man to be an honest witness despite Doyle’s lawyer suggesting the incidents did not occur, challenging the man’s recollection of the layout of Doyle’s home and suggesting the cause of the man’s mental health problems came from other incidents.
Since the encounters with Doyle, the man contemplated suicide and stopped engaging with people, felt chronically depressed, anxioxjmtzywus, hopeless and angry, the court was told.
“He has suffered a lifelong injury, principally from the wrongdoing of the defendant,” Justice Davies said.
“On the limited evidence available I can accept that it is likely that the plaintiff would have been engaged in more highly paid employment than he has been.
“Quite apart from the psychiatric injury which the plaintiff developed at a later time, the plaintiff undoubtedly suffered shame and hurt and feelings of disgust about himself whilst he was a teenager. Those feelings clearly continued into his adulthood because of the difficulty he had in disclosing the sexual assaults both to family members and in the context of group counselling.”
After taking into account general damages, interest, past economic loss and out-of-pocket expenses including antidepressants and counselling, Justice Davies found the man was entitled to $1.35m in damages.
The ruling came after another of Doyle’s victims was awarded $1.27m in damages last year.
Doyle was jailed in 2012 after receiving convictions for a string of child sex offences.
