Former lawyer fined for racially abusing court security worker

Megan In de Braekt , a former Perth lawyer who was struck from the roll earlier this year has been ordered to pay compensation for breaching the Australian Human Rights Act 1986 and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth).

The Federal Circuit Court decision ordered Ms in de Braekt to pay $12500 compensation for loss and damage to Mr Rajandran Kanapathy, a court security officer whom she racially abused. It was found that Ms In de Braekt engaged in unlawful conduct by telling Mr Kanapathy that she knew he was from Singapore, that he ought to go back to Singapore, and that people like him were not needed here and then describing him as “you prick”; she also called him a “Singaporean prick” on one occasion, and in the context of the above offensive behaviour, called the applicant “a prick” on approximately six further occasions, and a “short prick” on one occasion.

Slater & Gordon represented Mr Kanapathy who works as a security supervisor at Perth’s Central Law Courts building. He gave evidence that In de Braekt became abusive after she refused a request from security personnel to search her handbag on 16 January 2009. The lawyer then commenced to verbally abuse Kanapathy, telling him he had “short man’s syndrome”.

In the decision, Justice Lucev observed that the case had been “bitterly contested” by In de Braekt who, responding to the original complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, flat out denied that the incident had even occurred. Indeed she claimed that at no time did she see or communicate with Kanapathy on 16 January 2009.

The Supreme Court considered a number of matters, including this one before a judgment in April ordering In de Braekt’s name be struck off the roll of legal practitioners in WA.

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Kanapathy v  In De Braekt  (No.4) [2013] FCCA 1368 (25 September 2013)

LEGAL PROFESSION COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE v  in de BRAEKT  [2012] WASAT 58 (27 March 2012)

LEGAL PROFESSION COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE v  in de BRAEKT  [2011] WASAT 1 (13 January 2011)