Garda said publicity only chance to find girl

Ten DAYS before Kim O'Donovan was found dead, a Garda sergeant told Newtown House staff in whose care she had been placed that a media alert was the only chance of finding her, the High Court heard yesterday.

Mr Shane Murphy SC, for the Garda Commissioner, said Sgt Flynn of Bray Garda station had told Ms Elizabeth Cleary of Newtown House, Co Wicklow, on August 13th, 2000, he believed publicity was the only way of finding the 15-year-old disturbed girl, who had absconded on July 28th. Ms Cleary had said she would raise it with her supervisor.

Ms Sheelagh Murtagh, manager of Newtown House, said she thought publishing Kim's identity was not appropriate. There were problems in taking such a route, including concerns it would drive her underground and how she would react to private information being published. Ms Murtagh said it became "more of an issue" from mid-August and she told Sgt John O'Driscoll of Bray Garda station on August 23rd that she wanted to follow that route.

He said to discuss it with the Garda press office the next day, August 24th. However, that was the day Kim was found dead.

She was unaware whether a letter inviting gardai to a case conference on August 11th was ever sent. Mr Murphy said Supt Moynihan of Bray Garda station would say he never got the letter. Ms Murtagh said it was "of great personal and professional regret that the efforts to apprehend Kim O'Donovan failed with tragic results".

One of the hardest phone calls she had ever taken was to hear from a staff member of Newtown House about Kim, she said. "He initially said Kim's been found, then he said `The news is not good, she's dead', " Ms Murtagh said.

Yesterday was the second day of the inquiry, ordered by Mr Justice Kelly, into the circumstances of how Kim escaped from Newtown House on July 24th, 2000, and the steps taken to find her before she was found dead of a heroin overdose in a Dublin city B & B on August 24th.

Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the East Coast Area Health Board, which runs Newtown House, yesterday said a letter from Kim, received by Mr Justice Kelly on July 29th, in which she said she was staying in a bed and breakfast paid for by an unnamed journalist, was not passed on to gardai by health board staff or its legal officers.

Mr MacEntee said The Irish Times had reported on August 1st, 2000, that the judge had received the letter and the report referred to Kim's claim about staying in the bed and breakfast.

The court also heard Kim was seen in Cornelscourt on July 29th, which information was passed to the gardai, and there was another possible sighting in the Dun Laoghaire-Ballybrack area the week before Kim's death. Kim contacted Newtown House on August 10th and said she was fine.

Earlier, during her continued cross-examination by Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for Kim's pa rents, Mr Justice Kelly asked Ms Murtagh why the court was never told or asked to approve of the proposal to allow Kim to work, unsupervised by Newtown House staff, outside the unit for up to 20 hours a week.

Ms Murtagh accepted the court should have been told. She said the decision that Kim would be permitted to work part-time was taken in December 1999 and she began work at Norwood nursing home in Bray on July 12th, 2000.

She accepted the work proposal was never put before the High Court when it reviewed Kim's case in November 1999 or May 2000 and the court was informed only on July 31st, after Kim had absconded.

She believed, from remarks Mr Justice Kelly made at the November hearing, that the court was indicating the day-today management of children was for the professionals directly involved in their care. Mr Justice Kelly said he made those remarks in the context of supervised outings only.

Ms Murtagh said there was always a risk in taking children off site but there had to be an important balance between care and safety. Her activities on and off the unit were reviewed daily. The therapeutic value of allowing her to work was clear from Newtown House's notes from July 12th-28th, 2000, the two weeks when she had worked there.

On July 28th, Kim disappeared during her afternoon break. Newtown House learned of this when one of its staff contacted Norwood that evening at about 6.55 p.m. to ask when she would be finishing work. Ms Murtagh said her unit gave extensive detail to the gardai.