Compensation will not be granted to a man who needed surgery on his face after a fight at a Mulwala caravan park, after an investigation concluded that he started the violence.
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The man, who the court ruled cannot be named, ended up with broken bones in his face from the incident with another male on April 20, 2018.
He was represented in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal by his wife, who has been fighting for access to victims support payments, saying he was the primary victim of an act of violence.
His wife made a statement to the tribunal that she saw him "bleeding; nose, head, mouth and eye and cheek swollen and caved in" and he "was slumped over the washing machine".
"He turned and looked up at me his left eye was just bulging out, and blood," she said.
She claimed the injuries happened when another man kneed her husband to the face, after they spoke at the laundry of the caravan park where they all lived.
He had surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital on May 4.
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The fight started over something offensive the injured man he said to the other man's wife on a pub crawl bus trip at the start of November 2017.
The Victims Support application alleged that the man suffered physical and psychological injuries and sought counselling, and asked for financial compensation to cover costs of refuge accommodation, rental assistance, essential home items and travel to attend court.
"Our world is turned upside down because of this assault," his wife said.
But a police investigation into the fight told a different story.
Officers found the man who ended up injured instigated the violence by saying "I'll do you" and lunging at the other man.
As they both fell, he hit his head on the gravel ground.
This version of events was backed up by an independent witness at the caravan park, who police said would have no reason to lie.
She said the injured man got up and walked away after the fight, making further threats such as "you'd want to watch your back and have eyes in the back of your head".
His wife claimed the woman was lying and continued to fight for compensation by appealing this decision, but this was also refused by the client claims assessor on January 24, 2019.
"I acknowledge that the applicant has unfortunately received significant injury and is facing a range of very difficult circumstances. The incident has had a significant impact on both himself and his family," the assessor said.
This was backed up after a review by a senior assessor in July, who said the injuries were likely caused by the man falling on his face.
Tribunal senior member Michelle Riordan was the latest to refuse an appeal, in a decision handed down this week.
"The conflicting evidence about what actually occurred, and the sequence in which the relevant events occurred, does not establish a safe climate that enables me to find that more probably than not the act of violence described in the application for victims support, namely that the alleged offender kneed the applicant to the face, occurred," she said.
"There is simply no evidence that supports this and these submissions are at best speculative."