High Court judge has awarded €70,000 damages to a family after upholding their claim that gardaí had wrongfully disclosed to the media information that a relative of theirs, a convicted rapist, was living with them for a time.
This caused them distress and injury and ultimately led to their leaving their home in Co Kerry.
Mr Justice John Quirke said that although a Garda superintendent had testified that "a careful, sensible and appropriate policy" had been adopted by the Garda before 1999, to be applied when convicted sex offenders became resident in particular areas, that policy was not applied to the "short-term problem" of the presence of convicted rapist James O'Donoghue in Ballybunion and was in fact breached by a member or members of the Garda.
He was satisfied the disclosure by a garda or gardaí of information about Mr O'Donoghue to a journalist also breached the duty of care which the State owed to the Gray family not to unnecessarily expose them to the risk of foreseeable damage and injury resulting from the negligent disclosure of confidential information procured by and within the possession of the State.
The disclosure of the information to Kerryman journalist Conor Keane "cannot be excused by any public policy consideration such as the need to protect the constitutional rights of others or the interests of the common good", he ruled.
Alan Gray, his wife Phyllis and their son Francis, Drumalee Road, North Circular Road, Dublin, had claimed that after the media published stories based on the information, they were shunned by the local community in Ballybunion, where they had moved in 1995 under the rural resettlement scheme.
The family ultimately had to return to Dublin.
In his reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Quirke found the family's constitutional rights to privacy and peaceful enjoyment of their home were breached when gardaí leaked to the media that Mr O'Donoghue had been residing with them.
Mr O'Donoghue lived with the Grays for five weeks in 1999.
The judge noted that Mr O'Donoghue had served 12 years of a 15-year sentence for a violent rape and was afraid he would be assaulted on his release from prison. Mr O'Donoghue's father had asked Alan Gray, his uncle, to let him stay with the family in Ballybunion for a short period.
The civil wrong established in this case was a wrong committed by a servant and agent of the State and involved the unlawful disclosure of confidential and sensitive information procured by the State, Mr Justice Quirke said. The duty to keep that information confidential rested with the State.
He awarded Phyllis Gray €50,000, after finding she had suffered the most as a result of the events. She had suffered a depressive syndrome and made a suicide attempt.
She was the driving force behind the family's move to Kerry, was reluctant to permit Mr O'Donoghue to stay in the family home and had agreed to do so only for a short time.
Mr Justice Quirke accepted it was the Grays' intention to remain in Kerry permanently but the hopes and expectations of Ms Gray that she and her family could live a peaceful life in Kerry were frustrated by the events of March and April 1999.
She was forced to return to a life which she did not wish to lead in Dublin.
While Ms Gray had overcome substantial obstacles and had adapted to her changed circumstances, she had suffered considerably in order to do so, overcoming serious personal injuries and in particular post-traumatic stress and psychological injury of a severe nature.
Alan Gray was awarded €15,000 and Francis Gray was awarded €5,000 for the upset, distress, inconvenience and disruption of their lives as a result of the events of April 1999.
However, the judge ruled the Grays had not proven on the evidence that Francis Gray was subjected to an assault in his family home on April 4th, 1999.
The trial had heard that the Grays and their five children moved to Ballybunion in 1995 as part of the rural resettlement scheme. Mr Gray got work locally and the children attended school, and got on well generally.
In February 1999, Mr O'Donoghue, then aged 35, went to stay with them.
The Kerryman newspaper published an article on April 9th, 1999 with the headline: "Garda concern over sex pervert" and a series of articles appeared in local and national newspapers in the following days.
The judge said journalists and photographers converged on the Gray home and subjected them to "unpleasant and intrusive behaviour". By April 12th, 1999, the Grays had returned to Dublin permanently, where they lived in a bed and breakfast for six months before getting a two-room apartment and eventually a house.
Mr Justice Quirke said he was satisfied the information and verification which led to the publication of the article in the Kerryman by Conor Keane had come from a member or members of the Garda.