Mother of murdered daughter seeks to challenge refusal of compensation

A woman whose daughter was murdered by a man following a row over computer messages wants to challenge the rejection of her claim for compensation as a victim of crime, the High Court heard.

Magdalena Vonkova, from Prague in the Czech Republic, is the mother of Nicola Vonkova (19) who was murdered by Jakub Fidler (24) at Inverin in Galway in July 2008. He is serving life imprisonment after pleading guilty in 2010 to murder.

The mother is seeking High Court permission to challenge the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal’s refusal of her application for compensation because the murdered woman and Fidler 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”.

Judicial review

Ms Vonkova and Fidler lived in the same house but were not members of a household in the strict sense, the mother’s lawyers say.

On Wednesday, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan gave her lawyers permission to seek to bring a judicial review application after the Easter break against the tribunal, Minister for Justice and the State.

It is claimed the compensation scheme’s exclusion rule is a breach of the mother’s rights to a fair hearing and/or family life and/or to an effective remedy under the European Convention on Human Rights.

It is claimed the tribunal acted unreasonably by treating the victim and offender as a family or household unit and in finding Ms Vonkova was in a relationship with Fidler.

It is further claimed there was a failure to take into account the fact she simply lived in the same house as Fidler and it was “not a household in the strict sense”.

Domestic violence

It is also argued the interpretation of the exclusion rule was too narrow and failed to take account tht the purpose of the rule is aimed at domestic violence to ensure an offender did not benefit from any compensation award.

It is further claimed the tribunal failed to properly adhere to fair procedures and the rules of natural justice in circumstances where the mother is of limited means, a foreign national with little English, and that no assistance was provided to her.

The tribunal did not direct her to the fact she could have made her application for compensation in the Czech Republic, it is claimed.

The mother also seeks a declaration the compensation scheme is not compatible with an EU directive of 2004 which placed an onus on member states to create a scheme for victims of violent crime and to facilitate access to that scheme where the crime was committed in a State other than the victim’s residence.

In July 2010, Fidler, who is also a Czech, was given a life sentence after he pleaded guilty to the murder.

The Central Criminal Court was told Ms Vonkova died from strangulation following a row about spying on Fidler’s email and instant messaging accounts.