The mother of a murder victim has been permitted by the High Court to make a significant amendment to her legal challenge over the State’s refusal to pay her compensation.
Magdalena Vonkova, from Prague, Czech Republic, took a case over the death of her daughter Nicola Vonkova (19) at Inverin, Co Galway in July 2008. Jakub Fidler is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in 2010 to murder.
The victim’s mother has brought a challenge over the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal’s refusal of her application for compensation as the two, who had been friends, were residing in the same house at the time of her death.
The compensation scheme provides no money is payable “where the offender and the victim were living together as members of the same household at the time the injuries were inflicted”.
It is claimed that Ms Vonkova and Fidler lived in the same house but were not members of a household in the strict sense and thus the refusal to grant compensation should be quashed.
Incompatible
In a ruling on Monday on a preliminary issue in the case, Mr Justice Senan Allen said Ms Vonkova was entitled to amend her claim to advance another ground of challenge. The additional ground is that the scheme is incompatible with a right to effective remedy guaranteed by Article 47 of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and in breach of EU law.
The scheme fails to provide for fair and appropriate compensation to the victims of violent international crimes committed in the State, it is claimed.
The tribunal, the Minister for Justice and the State, all respondents in the case, had opposed the amendment on grounds including that it was sought outside the relevant legal time limits. The action was commenced in April 2017 and the amendment was proposed last June.
Mr Justice Allen said there was “a lot to be said from a public policy perspective” for allowing the challenge to the scheme on all grounds. While there was a lateness to the amendment, there was also a long delay by the respondents in the filing of opposition papers, he said.
At Fidler’s trial in 2010, the Central Criminal court was told that Nicola died from strangulation following an argument about her spying on Fidler’s email and instant messaging accounts on his computer.