WebMail
My BigPond
A young waitress who killed herself by jumping off a building was the victim of systematic bullying by co-workers at a Melbourne cafe, a court has heard.
Brodie Rae Constance Panlock, 19, was subjected to humiliating and relentless bullying by other workmates at Cafe Vamp in Hawthorn, in Melbourne's east, before her suicide in September 2006.
Former workmates Nicholas Smallwood, Rhys MacAlpine and Gabriel Toomey have all pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court to failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of persons.
The cafe's owner Marc Luis Da Cruz and his company MAP Foundation have pleaded guilty to two charges, including failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment.
The court was crowded with tearful friends and family of Ms Panlock as they heard distressing details of the ordeal Ms Panlock went through at Cafe Vamp.
Prosecutor Gary Livermore told a pre-sentence hearing on Friday that witnesses had seen several of the accused pour fish oil into Ms Panlock's kitbag and then pour it over her hair and clothes, reducing her to tears.
He said they had also engaged in indirect bullying, such as calling her fat and ugly, spitting on her, gossiping, exclusion and failing to intervene when she was being bullied.
Magistrate Peter Lauritsen was told that Ms Panlock had tried to commit suicide in May 2006 by taking rat poison and beer after being rejected by Smallwood, with whom she'd had an intimate relationship.
Mr Livermore said that after that incident rat poison was put in her bag, and MacAlpine had told her to go and take it.
At a coroner's hearing in 2008, Meghan Chester, a former barista at Cafe Vamp, said Brodie had no confidence in her beauty or worth.
'I have worked in the hospitality industry for 10 years, but I have never seen anything like what those ... males did to Brodie,' Ms Chester said in a statement.
In the statement read to the court, Ms Chester said the accused men wouldn't engage in the same level of bullying with other members of staff but with Brodie 'they took it to another level'.
In victim impact statements read to the court, Brodie's father said he was devastated that he wasn't able to protect his daughter from what she went through in her workplace.
'As a father, one of my main duties to my family was to protect my wife and children - I feel very upset I couldn't protect Brodie from what she went through,' Mr Panlock said.
Her mother Rae said that she had been on medication since Brodie's death and found it difficult to sleep.
'Brodie was such a big part of my life,' she said.
Her brother Cameron wrote that his sister was stolen from him.
'I will always see this experience as something only nightmares are made of,' he said.
The cafe owner Da Cruz said in evidence that his family had been shattered by Brodie's death and he had put his restaurant up for sale and was intending to move to Queensland.
The pre-sentence hearing is continuing.
