A record award of €600,000 made at the High Court early last year to a woman repeatedly sexually assaulted and abused was reduced to €350,000 by the Supreme Court today.
The judge held the original award was "disproportionate" in a case which, while "very severe and serious" was not the "worst case scenario".
The award was made by a High Court jury against Mr Simon Murphy, who carried out the abuse between 1990 and 1995. The abuse took place from when the girl was aged 12 until she was 17.
She is now in her 20s. The appeal to the Supreme Court against the amount of the High Court award was brought by Mr Murphy, of The Hollow, Ramsgrange, near New Ross, Co Wexford.
Earlier, in another court, he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment on a number of counts of sexual abuse of the plaintiff in the present case and three other victims. Two years of the sentence were suspended.
The High Court was told that Murphy had admitted the abuse and that the only issue for the jury to decide was the amount of damages. In the Supreme Court, Murphy argued the jury's award was excessive.
Supreme Court judge Ms Justice Denham said today it appeared this was the first award of damages for sexual abuse by a civil jury. The judge said this was also the first appeal to raise the issue of the sum to be awarded in general damages for sexual assault, sexual abuse and rape, in a continuum, of a teenage girl.
Consequently, there were no precedents to guide the court, she said. However, there was information from other sources which might inform the court and be of assistance.
Ms Justice Denham, with whose judgment Mr Justice Geoghegan and Mr Justice McCracken agreed, said there was no doubt the case was one in which a jury would be entitled to award substantial damages.
However, the damages awarded must be fair and reasonable and proportionate to the injuries suffered, she added.
It was an unfortunate fact that over the last decade there had been many cases of sexual assault and rape of children before the courts. Consequently, there was judicial knowlegde of "this dark side" of Irish society.
In that context, while this was a very severe and serious case, it was not the worst case scenario. Therefore, the judge said, it would not be a case in which to award the maximum sum of general damages.