Woman in hiding after ACC 'blunder'

A Bay of Plenty sexual abuse victim is hiding in her home after ACC sent her patient file to a local dairy.

The woman, known as "Rachel", said since the incident graffiti had been scrawled on her home, a job interview had been cancelled, and she had been told she was the subject of rumours in the community.

The Privacy Commissioner's office is now investigating how ACC came to incorrectly address the package, resulting in the blunder.

Rachel's advocate David Wadsworth said a confidential compensation settlement from ACC for the privacy breach was in the works. Both he and Rachel declined to comment further on the settlement.

ACC said yesterday that investigations into the case were still continuing.

Rachel has been battling with ACC since January for compensation for a mental injury caused by sexual abuse she suffered as a child and again as an adult.

She applied to ACC's sensitive claims unit to receive a copy of her file last month, and was asked to provide an address.

She emailed back with clear instructions that the courier package was to be labelled with her name and address and sent via her local dairy, the Matata Superfoods, near Whakatane.

Rachel said she and other rural residents not registered with rural mail had been receiving their post in this manner for years without any adverse events.

However, a blunder at ACC's mailing centre meant Rachel's name was left off and the package was addressed only to the store.

The file contained hundreds of pages of case notes and confidential medical and health information.

The store owner Supinder Mann said he opened the package because it was addressed to his business, but did not read it or show it to anyone before giving it to the woman's husband when he worked out the intended recipient.

Rachel said she did not blame Mr Mann for opening the package.

She said she had asked ACC to notify her when the package was sent and provide her with a tracking number, but had received no reply.

The first she knew of its arrival was when a stranger arrived at her home and told her that intimate details of her troubled past and her family were the "talk of the town".

Since then it had been like being caught in a game of Chinese whispers, she said, with her story becoming more and more fabricated as it was passed from person to person.

She and her husband had arrived home one evening last week to find words including "rapist" and "freak" scrawled on her home.

Many other people, however, had contacted her with messages of sympathy and support, she said.

- NZPA