NSW policewoman who had to guard a severed HEAD wins massive pay out

A former policewoman who was tasked with guarding a severed head and witnessed one of her colleagues get shot dead has been paid out $750,000.

Rebecca Sandstrom took her insurer to the NSW Supreme Court after her claim for permanent disability was denied five years ago.

Ms Sandstrom, who was stationed in Sydney’s west in Bankstown, developed chronic post-traumatic stress disorder following several horrific cases over the span of three years.

In 2009 she was part of a team sent to a crime scene in Pheasants Nest, where a woman’s dismembered body had been discovered.

Ms Sandstrom, who had been on the job for four years, was tasked with guarding the body parts before they were placed into evidence bags to be transported. 

Another incident was a suicide, one of three she attended during her service, where she was left covered in the victim’s blood.

She was one of the first on the scene and attempted to perform CPR on the man.

Ms Sandstrom also watched one of her colleagues, William Crews, get fatally shot in 2010. 

The same day she was placed on leave and never returned to duty. 

In 2009 she was part of a team sent to a crime scene in Pheasants Nest, where a woman’s dismembered body had been discovered (stock)

Justice Michael Slattery found she could never work again, based on evidence given by Ms Sandstrom, her colleagues and medical experts.

‘The Court accepts that she can in her mind still on occasions see this woman’s bagged head on the back seat of the vehicle,’ he wrote in his judgement.  

‘She says even now in her own car she will turn back to look for something and she sees the murdered woman’s head on the back seat of her car. 

‘As Ms Sandstrom says, “it still scares me”. The Court accepts that these images spontaneously flood into the plaintiff’s conscious thoughts beyond her control.’

He ordered the insurance company pay her a total of $752,818 over two policies.