Father of murdered carer wins workplace injury claim

The father of domestic violence murder victim Molly Ticehurst has won a compensation claim against a global mining company following a workplace accident, with the judge noting his daughter was helping care for him before her death.

Anthony "Tony" Ticehurst took Peabody Energy Australia to court after sustaining a spinal injury while driving a coal dump truck at its Willpinjong Mine, near Mudgee in regional New South Wales.

District Court Judge Wendy Strathdee has ordered the company to pay Mr Ticehurst more than $1.3 million in damages, interest and costs for injuries he sustained in December 2021.

Mr Ticehurst was injured while driving in "rougher than normal conditions" during which he bounced in the cabin, his seat bottomed out and hit the frame of the truck underneath.

Judge Strathdee said the injury left him "totally incapacitated for work".

The court heard that he put in a request for a grader and was told he would be "put on the dance card", and upon being told there were no graders available the "standard procedure of operators was to drive to the conditions".

Mr Ticehurst continued with his work.

His evidence stated that the following day he was unable to work due to neck pain.

Just days later he returned to the truck but over the next ten months Mr Ticehurst's symptoms worsened and his last shift at the mine was in October 2022, the court was told.

The 67-year-old has undergone significant surgeries to his neck on three occasions which have been paid for by the defendant.

The judgement stated that the Mr Ticehurst "suffers constant pain" and that his quality of life has been "significantly diminished".

In a joint expert report, Dr Peter Giblin, orthopaedic surgeon for the plaintiff, and Dr Michael Edgar, neurosurgeon for the defendant, agreed that the plaintiff "had an exacerbation of pre-existing cervical spondylosis [arthritis] and it may never resolve".

"He has had to give up his hobby of motorbike riding and his ability to engage in fishing has been impacted," Judge Strathdee said.

Daughter assisted with domestic duties

The court heard that as a result of the injuries he was unable to perform domestic duties including vacuuming, mopping, changing his bed sheets.

His late daughter Molly Ticehurst was assisting him once a week before her death, the judgement said.

The 28-year-old mother was murdered in her Forbes home in April 2024 by her former partner Daniel Billings.

Mr Ticehurst's employment at the Wilpingjong Mine was officially terminated in late 2024 on the basis of his medical certificates.

He told the court that he intended to work until the age of 75 but he will now claim the age pension due to his inability to work.

Peabody Energy Australia submitted that Mr Ticehurst failed to request assistance from an available grader operator and that had he followed procedures in place to stop work until the situation had been remedied the "injury would not have occurred".

But Judge Strathdee accepted Mr Ticehurst's evidence that the system in place left the decision of whether to stop driving in the hands of the drivers which puts them at risk of "being reprimanded, performance-managed, retrained and ultimately dismissed".

"I find that the conditions in which the plaintiff was working on 8 December 2021 made a material contribution to the injury that I have found he sustained on that day, which was caused by the defendant's negligence," she concluded.

Mr Ticehurst has been awarded $646,000 for future economic loss, $20,000 for future domestic assistance and $151,000 for past and future out-of-pocket medical expenses.

The decision comes just days after news that the sentencing of Molly Ticehurst's murderer has been brought forward in September to allow a psychiatrist to give evidence.