Abused woman entitled to sue State, court rules

A Dublin woman who claims gardaí failed to act on her complaints made when she was 12 years old that she had been raped and brutally sexually assaulted and beaten by her stepbrother and other family members from the age of five is entitled to sue the State and Garda Commissioner for damages, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Gardaí had told her that she must have "enjoyed" the abuse or she would have complained about it sooner, the woman claims.

They had sent her back home and the alleged abuse continued for some 25 years, she contends. She had become pregnant after being raped by her stepbrother at the age of 19 and gave birth to a child as a result of which she developed suicidal tendencies, it is claimed.

As a result of what happened to her, she had "never had a life", she said. She suffered from chronic depression, sleep disturbance and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. A mother of seven, she now lives in a council house.

Her stepbrother had pleaded guilty to various charges and was jailed in 1997 for 15 years. The Court of Criminal Appeal has directed a retrial on charges of rape but the man's convictions for sexual assault and unlawful carnal knowledge stand.

The Dublin woman, now in her fifties, claims that, from about 1960, when she was five, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted, raped, beaten and intimidated in the family home by family members, particularly by one brother and by her parents.

She claims that when she was about 12, in 1967, she went to Raheny Garda station and complained to gardaí there, on at least two occasions, about the alleged abuse. However gardaí had told her she must have enjoyed the abuse, that she must have got something out of it and that otherwise she would have reported it sooner, she alleged.

The woman says gardaí took no action except to send her back home as a result of which she was continually and systematically beaten, intimidated sexually and/or indecently and incestually assaulted and raped until about 1996.

The woman had brought High Court proceedings against the Minister for Justice, the State and the Garda Síochána alleging that, as a result of the failure to act on her complaints, she had sustained severe personal injury, physical and mental distress and loss and damage. The defendants had applied to the High Court for an order dismissing the woman's proceedings on grounds of inordinate and inexcusable delay in bringing them. The High Court granted that order but the Supreme Court yesterday overturned the High Court decision and directed the trial could proceed.

Giving the court's decision, Ms Justice Susan Denham noted that a solicitor for the woman had said that the alleged continuing abuse was indirectly notified to gardaí about 1993/1994 by a social worker who had dealings with the woman. As a result, the woman's stepbrother was charged and subsequently pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court in April 1997 to various counts of rape, sexual assault and unlawful carnal knowledge. He was granted a retrial on the rape counts while the other counts stood uncontested.

Ms Justice Denham also noted that the trial judge in the stepbrother's case, Mr Justice Paul Carney, appeared to accept that the woman had complained to gardaí at Raheny and that her complaints were credible and should have been acted upon.

Fundamentally, what has to be applied is a test of fairness, the judge said. The State could not rely on the absence of records to dismiss the case. This would not be fair. As a matter of discretion, and in light of the balance of justice, the judge said she would not dismiss the case.