An Aboriginal removed from his family as a baby in 1957 has won compensation in a landmark court case over the Australian “stolen generation” scandal.

Bruce Trevorrow, one of tens of thousands of children seized from their native Australian families in the 1950s and 1960s, was awarded A$525,000 (£220,000) yesterday. The award is expected to pave the way for thousands of claims for compensation against the Australian Government.

Mr Trevorrow, who was 13 months old when he was taken from his family on Christmas Day 1957, was falsely imprisoned by the State as a child and was owed a duty of care for his pain and suffering, Judge Thomas Gray ruled in a South Australian court.

The case was being hailed last night as a breakthrough in the campaign for compensation for the children of the so-called stolen generation, whose plight was the subject of a national government inquiry in Australia in the mid1990s.

Julian Burnside, QC, Mr Trevorrow’s barrister and a leading Australian human rights advocate, told The Times last night there was an immense symbolic importance attached to yesterday’s victory.

“The fact that a court has found decisively in favour of an Aboriginal boy taken from his parents at a young age is really a giant step forward,” Mr Burnside said. “I guess the fate of other cases will depend on the particular facts of those cases but obviously this result is very encouraging.”

At the time that Mr Trevorrow was taken away, government officials believed that forcibly removing Aboriginal children from their families would force their integration, over time, with the white Australia population. The children most likely to be targeted were mixed-race Aboriginal children who had lighter skin than full Aboriginal children.

Mr Trevorrow was taken from his family when he was admitted to an Adelaide children’s hospital on Christmas Day 1957 suffering from stomach pains.

Hospital notes presented to the court that decided his compensation claim said that he was recorded as having no parents and that he appeared neglected and malnourished. Two week later he was given, under the authority of the Aborigines Protection Board, to a woman who later become his foster parent, without the permission of his natural parents.

Mr Trevorrow did not see his family again until he was teenager.

In the case decided yesterday, Mr Trevorrow sued the South Australian government for pain and suffering, claiming that he had lost his cultural identity, suffered depression, became an alcoholic and had an erratic employment history as a result of being taken as child from his family.

Justice Gray found that Mr Trevorrow had had “a tumultuous young adult life” and that his removal from his family caused injury and damage, which manifested throughout his childhood and adult life.

“I have reached the conclusion that the plaintiff has, thus far, generally had a miserable life,” he said in his judgement. “He does not belong. He feels isolated. His depression had led him to abuse alcohol.”

The judge said that there was “a level of determination” by authorities at the time Mr Trevorrow was removed to ensure that he and his mother never made contact.

Mr Burnside said that he hoped that Australian state governments would produce a compensation scheme for the stolen generation in the light of yesterday’s judgment, which he said set down the effects on children of forced removal.

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