Soldiers, garda claim on alleged stress injury

Eight soldiers and a garda are claiming compensation for alleged injury caused by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) arising from dangerous incidents in which they were involved, it has emerged.

Although the number of PTSD claims is relatively tiny compared to the number of other personal injury claims by the military and police, it is expected the stress-related claims may increase following a decision by the High Court last week to compensate a serving soldier for stress-related injury.

The stress-related payment made up an estimated £6,000 as part of an overall award of £80,000 to the soldier, Cmdt Adrian Ainsworth, son of the former deputy Garda commissioner, Mr Joseph Ainsworth. The bulk of the award to the soldier, it is understood, was based on hearing disability and potential loss of earnings.

It is the first time a soldier has received compensation for injury caused by stress.

The judgment prompted Fine Gael to call for the establishment of a State claims agency to look after the interests of both claimants and the taxpayer. The FG spokeswoman on defence, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, called on the Government to bring forward legislation to deal with the mounting levels of claims.

As well as last week's stress-related claim there are a further eight claims alleging post-traumatic stress injury claims from soldiers. One garda is also claiming PTSD injury as a result of an incident in which a garda firearm was accidentally discharged.

There are now concerns that soldiers or gardai involved in potentially dangerous situations might have a basis for compensation claims as a result of last week's award to Cmdt Ainsworth.

Some 765 serving or retired soldiers have compensation claims for injuries other than alleged hearing disability. A total of 13,538 soldiers are now claiming to have suffered hearing disability.

The State has settled only 1,861 hearing cases to date with a total cost of £53.1 million, which includes legal fees to plaintiffs' lawyers of £11.7 million.

A projection on the current rate of compensation for hearing injury would suggest that the settlement of the existing claims will cost the State around £500 million.

The hearing and stress claim by Cmdt Ainsworth is the second compensation payment to his family by the State. His wife, Anne, also successfully sued the Minister for Defence in 1995 after injuring her hand in their home which is in grounds of the Curragh Barracks. It is understood she received a payment of about £10,000.

Although there was no breakdown of the award to Cmdt Ainsworth, it is understood most of it was for hearing damage. He has 18 per cent hearing loss and was compensated at a rate of about £4,100 per percentage point of loss. This amounted to about £74,000, and the court made up the total payment to £80,000 to take account of the stress-related injury.

Cmdt Ainsworth's claim for stress-related injury is understood to refer to an incident in south Lebanon in April 1980. An Irish soldier, Pte Stephen Griffin, received a gunshot wound in the head during a gun battle and died later in hospital.

Cmdt Ainsworth (42) was one of three Irish peacekeeping personnel awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry as a result of the incident. He is serving with an FCA unit in the Western Command in Mullingar.

It is understood a psychologist's report said that Cmdt Ainsworth suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the incident.

Counselling treatment for PTSD, known as critical incident, was not introduced by the Defence Forces until 1993. The counselling was introduced after another soldier, Pte Sean Courtney, claimed he was suffering from PTSD when he abducted and murdered a Co Dublin woman, Ms Patricia O'Toole (32) in August 1991. She was driving through south Dublin and had asked Courtney for directions. She allowed him into the car and he overpowered and strangled her.

Courtney claimed in court to be suffering from a disorder because he had seen the body of another soldier who had accidentally killed himself in Lebanon. This claim was rejected by a jury and he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Ms O'Toole.

After his trial in January 1993 the Army announced it was introducing counselling for all soldiers involved in potentially stressful incidents, particularly in Lebanon.

It is suspected that the fact that this counselling service was not available before 1993 might precipitate a number of compensation claims from soldiers who experienced dangerous situations before that date.