Woman loses claim over removal of trousers at security check

A woman who claimed she was told to take off her jeans when going through a security check at Castlerea Prison, and as a result accidentally dropped her underwear leaving her exposed for a short time, has lost her High Court action seeking damages from the State.

Nataliya Matviyenko, from Ukraine, claimed she was told by a prison officer to take off her jeans because they contained decorative metal buttons or studs before going through a metal detector while visiting her husband in the prison.

A naturalised Irish citizen, said she felt “humiliated”, “embarrassed” and like “someone had poured a bucket of dirt over my head,” as a result of the incident.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said he accepted Ms Matviyenko “genuinely believed” she was asked to remove her trousers, when in fact the prison officer wanted her to remove her shoes.

The judge said he could not accept the State breached its duty of care towards her and ruled it could not have been reasonably foreseeable Ms Matviyenko would react as she had done.

Ms Matviyenko, a 39-year-old mother of two, of Leas na Coille, Ballybane, Galway, had sued the Governor of Castlerea Prison, Irish Prison Service and the Minister for Justice claiming damages for alleged negligence and breach of duty arising out of the incident on May 6th, 2009.

In denying the claims, the defendants pleaded she was never asked to remove her trousers while going through the prison’s screening process.

Mr Justice Gilligan, who viewed video evidence of the incident, accepted she was “a sincere person” who had a “genuine belief” on the day in question she was requested to remove her jeans while passing through the security screening process.

It could not have been “reasonably foreseeable” that Ms Matviyenko, who had a limited command of English, would have interpreted an instruction from the prison officer to mean she had to remove her trousers before passing through the metal detector.

After the judge queried whether the matter could have been sorted out much sooner, Conor Power SC, with Alex Caffrey BL, for the State said it was not seeking costs against Ms Matviyenko.