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[OMEN]

The NSW State Rail Authority (SRA) was not responsible for the rape of a woman who could not flee her attacker because she broke her ankle weeks earlier at a Sydney station, an appeal court has ruled.

A District Court judge last year decided the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would not have suffered a sexual assault at a private home had she not been injured and immobilised because of her fall at the railway station.

He also found the sexual assault was a "foreseeable" consequence of the SRA's "breach of duty".

But the NSW Court of Appeal overturned the findings, concluding it was not her lack of mobility that principally constrained her from leaving her attacker's room.

"In my view, it was not reasonably foreseeable that a young woman who was immobilised to the extent of having to use crutches would thereby be exposed to a criminal sexual assault," said Acting Justice Jane Mathews.

The Taiwanese woman, who was 31 at the time and in Australia to study English, fell while walking down slippery, wet stairs at Sydenham railway station in December 2002.

She successfully sued the SRA, but her $A239,405 ($NZ282,217) damages award was today reduced to $A217,324.

The original amount was reduced by the $A71,245 awarded in relation to the psychological damage relating to the rape.

But her lawyers successfully argued for a $A49,164 increase in the award for her future economic loss.

AAP

[JohnCenaFan28]

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