Court told of new information on Kim O'Donovan

There was information indicating that, after she absconded from the care of Newtown House, Kim O'Donovan stayed with a person who may have had connections with that high-support unit, the High Court has been told.

Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the East Coast Area Health Board, said there was information indicating where the 15year-old disturbed girl was for at least eight days between the time she absconded on July 28th 2000 and the discovery of her body in a Dublin city-centre B & B on August 24th 2000. He added that it had emerged late in the day that there were people who had harboured the girl, knowing that she was being sought.

No details of the information referred to by Mr MacEntee were given to the court yesterday, the fifth day of the inquiry into the circumstances under which Kim O'Donovan - who was in the care of the ECAHB at Newtown House, Co Wicklow - absconded and what steps were taken to find her before she was found dead of a heroin overdose.

Evidence in the inquiry will conclude today, after which submissions will be made.

In court yesterday, evidence was given of Garda efforts to find Kim O'Donovan. The court heard that gardai were not told, prior to her death, of the girl's assertion, in a letter to Mr Justice Kelly, read to the High Court on July 31st, 2000, and published in the newspapers the following day, that she was staying in a B & B.

Supt Denis Moynihan, of Bray Garda station, said that if he had been aware of that he would have directed inquiries at B & Bs. He said there was a regular flow of information from Newtown House to gardai regarding the girl.

Supt Moynihan said he had never received an invitation to attend a case conference about the girl on August 11th 2000.

Earlier, Ms Mary Egan, a senior social worker, said she had dictated that invitation and believed that the letter had been sent.

Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for Kim O'Donovan's parents, said that his clients had no complaints about the gardai and thanked them for their efforts to find her.

Ms Deirdre O'Reilly, a social worker, said that she was allocated to Kim O'Donovan's case in December 1999 when Newtown House was preparing her for discharge from the unit. The option of part-time work had been discussed in the context of getting her used to greater levels of freedom.

Ms O'Reilly said she was told that Kim O'Donovan was working in a private nursing home shortly after she began work there on July 12th 2000. She seemed to be very proud of the job.

She said that she received a confusing phone call on July 31st from a woman who said that Kim O'Donovan was threatening her daughter. Ms O'Reilly then contacted Newtown House and learned that she had absconded on July 28th.

Ms O'Reilly said she was dealing with some 22 people, including 17 adolescents, at the same time as she was allocated to Kim O'Donovan's case. It was a very heavy caseload.