Judge awards woman €120,000 over claims of sexual abuse by cousin

A High Court judge has awarded €120,000 in damages to a garda sergeant who claimed she was sexually abused as a child by her cousin.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens said he was “fully satisfied” that the woman’s evidence was proof of the matters she complained of.

He accepted that the various assaults, as she described them, appeared to be of “escalating severity” during the period.

The woman previously told the court she was sexually abused by her cousin in his bedroom when she was aged between about five and 12. Her cousin is some 11-years her senior.

The man, who represented himself in court, denied the claims and said they are “not true at all”.

The garda, represented by John P Kehoe BL and Hazel Cloughley Jones BL, instructed by John M Joy solicitors, said she knew the man was not a person of means.

She said brought the case because she wanted him “exposed for who he is and what he is done” and did not want him “hurting another child the way he hurt me”.

Duty

She felt she had a duty in her line of work to seek justice and said she “cannot in good conscience sit down with anybody else who has experienced this if I haven’t gone through the experience of bringing him to justice”.

Her claim was for damages for personal injuries arising out of, among other things, alleged sexual and physical abuse and oral and digital rape, which she says took place on dates between 1984 and 1992.

In giving his judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Owens said the woman’s evidence was “very persuasive” and it was significant that when the defendant was first confronted with her allegations against him some years ago his response was silence rather than an immediate denial.

The judge was of the view that the events had a substantial impact on the woman’s psychological wellbeing over a long number of years. He accepted that the psychological injuries had been caused by the man’s abuse of her as a child.

The incidents and resulting impact on the woman go back “a long period”, he said, and it is an “unfortunate feature” that one of the consequences of sexual abuse is that people live with it for years.

The judge said it was appropriate to award damages of €120,000 to the plaintiff, along with her legal costs.