Dad's fight for justice
Long battle: Peter Le Plastrier will see the 10-year fight for his son go before a military tribunal today.
AFTER a heart-wrenching 10-year battle, Peter Le Plastrier will today finally get the chance to expose the military decisions he says ruined his son's life.
The Kuranda man claims his son Warren, a former Royal Australian Navy sailor, was prescribed powerful amphetamines to treat a misdiagnosed sleeping disorder then wrongfully discharged because he was medically unfit.
The drugs cause symptoms including severe depression, loss of emotional control, paranoia and anxiety
To make matters worse, military lawyers mistakenly declared him dead in an official document.
Mr Le Plastrier Sr will take on the Department of Defence in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Canberra when a hearing into his son's case starts today.
He said he was seeking substantial compensation for Warren, who did not qualify for a navy pension when he was discharged and wanted the Department of Defence to correct his medical record.
"We consider Warren's military documents to be wrong," Mr Le Plastrier Sr told The Cairns Post yesterday.
"We want Warren to be acknowledged, we want Warren to get his entitlements.
"I have offered to conciliate this case (with Defence) at least once a month for the past five years.
"It'll all come out.
"All I wanted to do was save the economy a lot of money."
Warren, an ex-able seaman, was accused of falling asleep on-duty aboard HMAS Warrnambool in 1998 and ordered to perform land duties.
A year later, he was diagnosed with narcolepsy - a disorder that prompts uncontrollable bouts of sleepiness - and was prescribed dexamphetamine, a drug similar to speed.
He was medically discharged in July, 2001.
In 2003, the navy admitted that the diagnosis was wrong and offered him his job back.
He did not return because of the effects of the drug.
Warren could not receive the navy pension because his medical discharge was amended to a discharge on "administrative/normal grounds".
"He hasn't taken any narcolepsy medication since he left the navy," he said.
In 2002, Mr Le Plastrier Sr obtained a navy document that described Warren as "a deceased sailor".
"We now have to go to a tribunal to seek a ruling that Warren's not dead before his records can be amended," he said.
"They just won't change the records."
He said most government ministers had "washed their hands" of Warren's case.
"We believe that as a family we have been persecuted by the government and the defence force," he said.
"As far as I'm concerned, the only politicians who have genuinely tried to help us are (former Leichhardt MP) Warren Entsch and (electorate officer) Lyn Warwick."
The hearing is expected to be held for up to five days.
The Department of Defence could not provide comment on the case before deadline.
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