THE HIGH Court has dismissed a woman’s claim Garda negligence resulted in a situation whereby she was raped in her home by a man who had just killed his wife.
However, Mr Justice John Hedigan awarded the woman €200,000 damages against Joseph Kinsella who, the judge said, had subjected the woman to “a violent and most distressing attack”.
In her action, the woman had claimed she was asked by the Garda Síochána on May 27th, 1999, if Kinsella, the husband of her friend Bente Carroll, could stay at her house. The woman said she was informed Carroll had been found dead and Kinsella could not stay at his own home.
The woman, who lived alone in her Dublin home, said she did not like Kinsella but had allowed him stay because she was asked to by the Garda. Some 24 hours later, she claimed Kinsella raped her at knife-point in her home.
In her action against Kinsella, the Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General, the woman claimed the Garda was negligent in delivering Kinsella to her home. Kinsella had a previous conviction in the UK for rape and was was later convicted of the unlawful killing of his wife.
The State defendants denied negligence. The woman previously obtained judgment in default of defence against Kinsella. No charge was ever brought against Kinsella in relation to the alleged rape of the woman. He was convicted in 2001 of the manslaughter of his wife but a jury unanimously cleared him of her murder.
Kinsella, of Corduff Grove, Blanchardstown, had denied murdering Carroll but admitted strangling her. He was sentenced to 12 years and has since been released.
In his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Hedigan said, on the basis of now well-established law, no duty of care by the Garda arose from the circumstances of the case. The decision to bring Kinsella to the woman’s house after Carroll’s body was discovered was not done in the course of their investigatory functions.
Gardaí could not have foreseen Kinsella would “so violently abuse the hospitality he received that night”, the judge said.