Autistic man (21) seeks education court order

An autistic man, whose parents claim he was physically and sexually abused while a resident at a centre at Lota, Cork, run by the Brothers of Charity, has asked the High Court for an order directing the State to provide appropriate education and healthcare for him.

The claims that Mr Shane O'Mahony was abused at Lota are strongly denied. In an affidavit, Mr Patrick Healy, Director of Disability Services of the Southern Health Board, said the claims were referred for investigation but the parents would not make a specific allegation.

Mr Healy said he had consulted the Brothers of Charity, who informed him that the sexual abuse allegations were entirely unfounded.

Mr O'Mahony (21), his parents, Pat and Maud, and his four brothers, of Sweetbriar Lane, Inniscarra View, Ballincollig, Co Cork, have applied for an interlocutory order directing the Minister for Education and Science, the Minister for Health and Children, the State and the Southern Health Board to provide suitable education and healthcare for Mr O'Mahony pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

Alternatively, Mr and Mrs O'Mahony want an interlocutory order directing the State to provide them with resources so they may arrange appropriate education and healthcare for their son.

The orders are sought until legal proceedings taken by the O'Mahonys have been determined by the courts. The O'Mahonys are seeking orders directing the State to provide appropriate education for their son and damages for the alleged failure to provide such education to date.

Moving the interlocutory application before Mr Justice Finnegan yesterday, Mr Paul Sreenan SC, for the O'Mahonys, said he would be making the case that the State had breached his clients' constitutional rights.

He said Mr O'Mahony's parents had been passed "from pillar to post" in their efforts to secure appropriate education for their son.

Counsel said education was of vital importance to autistic children, but Mr O'Mahony had never received the levels of physical, speech, occupational and behavioural therapies he required.

Mr Sreenan said Mr O'Mahony had made some progress with the limited education he did get and also from home education provided by his mother. Mr O'Mahony was admitted on a residential basis to the Brothers of Charity centre at Lota. The people at Lota were very well-meaning and kind to those in their care but, Mr Sreenan said, the evidence would be that, whatever happened at Lota, the end result was "catastrophic". Mr O'Mahony lost most of the skills he had acquired and became more difficult and disruptive.

He was hospitalised at University College Hospital, Cork, counsel said. He was emaciated, suffering from bulimia, constantly stripping and tearing at his clothes and smearing faeces on himself. His parents believed some of these behaviours were consistent with his being physically and sexually abused in Lota.

They had taken him out of Lota in early 1998 and since then he had been at home. His family were effectively prisoners in their own home because of Mr O'Mahony's situation.

Mr Sreenan said the State should have known what was provided for Mr O'Mahony was unsuitable. It had failed in its constitutional duty. The defendants deny that Mr O'Mahony has not received appropriate education.

In his affidavit, Mr Healy of the SHB said such allegations were grossly unfair to all of those, particularly the Brothers of Charity at Lota, who had gone to considerable efforts to provide full-time residential care and daycare services tailored to meet Mr O'Mahony's needs.

Mr Healy said a service plan tailored to Mr O'Mahony's needs was drawn up by the Brothers of Charity in 1997, in co-operation with the Minister for Health and the State. This plan was put into effect until Mr O'Mahony was withdrawn from Lota by his parents. Those responsible for his care at Lota had said he made considerable progress there.

He said Mrs O'Mahony desired to lead a service for autistic persons. It seemed that what Mrs O'Mahony really wanted was to design and run her own care programme at home and have the defendants fund it, he said.

The hearing continues today.