National
Wheelie-bin killer Valerie Parashumti wants $337,000 accident compensation
- From: The Sunday Times
- November 21, 2010
Valerie Paige Parashumti, who murdered a teenage girl, is seeking compensation for injuries sustained in a traffic accident. Source : Channel Nine News Perth Source: PerthNow
CONVICTED killer Valerie Parashumti has applied for publicly-funded compensation over injuries she sustained in a road accident two years before she and her lesbian lover bludgeoned 16-year-old Stacey Mitchell to death and dumped her in a wheelie bin.
The Insurance Commission of WA has engaged one of the state's leading insurance litigation firms, WHL Legal, to handle the case, The Sunday Times reported.
Parashumti was 16 when she was hit by a car while riding a bicycle across an intersection on July 17, 2004.
She was taken to hospital suffering leg injuries. Court medical assessments ordered for her 2008 murder trial also detail the "possibility of frontal lobe damage" to the brain from the accident.
She stands to gain up to $337,000 for pain and suffering arising from the crash.
In addition, the insurance commission says, there is no financial limit to damages that can be paid for past and future medical treatments and loss of earnings depending on the extent of the injuries.
In March 2008, Parashumti and Jessica Stasinowsky were sentenced to strict security life imprisonment with a minimum of 24 years for murdering Stacey Mitchell on December 18, 2006.
They had drugged, bludgeoned and strangled Ms Mitchell at the Lathlain house they shared, then knelt over her body and kissed.
They recorded the blood-stained murder scene on a mobile-phone camera, before shoving their victim's body into a wheelie bin.
Parashumti's father, Nick, said a claim for personal injury compensation had been lodged several years ago, but the family had never received a payout. In the meantime, his daughter was charged with Ms Mitchell's murder and the action was delayed.
Mr Parashumti said he was unaware of the latest claim, but his daughter should receive compensation for injuries sustained in the crash.
"She's done a bad thing (the murder), there's no doubt about that," he said, "But she's entitled to some compensation."
Insurance Commission of WA managing director Vic Evans declined to comment specifically on Parashumti's case, but said nothing precluded a person serving jail time from a compensation payout for injuries in a motor vehicle crash.
Parashumti's lawyer David Edwardson QC told the WA Supreme Court in January 2008 that his client had been involved in a "horrific" car crash in 2004 and doctors' reports indicated the "possibility of frontal lobe damage" of the brain.
Premiums for compulsory third party insurance are paid by motorists as part of their vehicle registration in WA.
The fund, administered by ICWA, the State Government's insurer, is used for fatal and personal injury compensation pay-outs.
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