A NANNY who worked for Ms Michelle Rocca told the High Court yesterday that she took photographs of her injuries in the kitchen of her home two days after the alleged assault.
Ms Norah Griffin said she was a nanny in Ms Rocca's household during the school year 1991/92. She was attending a course in Dublin. Shea lived in with Ms Rocca and went home every other weekend.
Ms Rocca went to a party on March 21st, 1992, a Saturday night. Ms Griffin said she babysat Claudia.
Ms Rocca returned on the Sunday evening. Her eyes were black and blue and her nose and mouth were all marked. She showed Ms Griffin bruises on her arms and legs.
She said Ms Rocca was very quiet. The doctor arrived on the Sunday night but she (Ms Griffin) went upstairs to her room.
She went to college on the Monday but came back early. It was daylight.
Ms Rocca was there with her sister Laura. The two older children were at school.
Claudia was there with the other nanny, Ms Linda Dillon. Ms Rocca said she wanted photographs taken. She had got advice from the doctor to have them done.
Ms Griffin said she had her own camera and she took the photographs of Ms Rocca and all the marks on her body. She took them in the kitchen. Laura was there when she took them. The light was bright.
During that week, she went into the city and got them developed at the ILAC one hour photo booth. She agreed that the photographs accurately represented Ms Rocca's condition.
Ms Griffin said: "Ms Rocca was very quiet within herself. She didn't talk about the situation. She had some bad days, on a low and all that." She said Ms Rocca was fine before that.
She finished her course and had seen Ms Rocca since as she was a very good friend.
Asked what Ms Rocca was like as a mother, Ms Griffin said that she was a very good mother to her children. She was very interested in them. When she came in from work, she would ask about them and would help them with reading.
Cross examined by Ms Fidelma Macken SC, for Mr Ryan, Ms Griffin said that the other nanny, Ms Dillon, was full time during the day. She (Ms Griffin) would be there at night. She had taken the photographs at about 2 p.m.
She said she did not think Ms Rocca went back to work for a while afterwards, because of the bruising.
Mr Robert Doyle, a photographer of Middle Abbey Street, Dublin, told the court that he received the negatives of the photographs last Wednesday. He made a set of enlargements of 10in by 8in prints. He selected four prints.
He had not altered them. They were exactly the same as they were on the negatives. He had not developed the negatives.