A MOTHER of two who was sexually abused as an eight-year-old by her primary school teacher is to go to the European Court of Human Rights to appeal a decision by the Supreme Court that the State was not legally liable for the abuse that she suffered.
Louise O’Keeffe from Bandon in west Cork confirmed yesterday that she has lodged appeal papers with the European Court of Human Rights against the decision by the Supreme Court which found that the Department of Education was not liable for the abuse she suffered.
Ms O’Keeffe had sued the department over abuse she suffered at the hands of Leo Hickey at Dunderrow Primary School in Co Cork in the early 1970s but both the High Court and the Supreme Court ruled that the State was not liable.
Both courts ruled the department was not liable for the abuse as Mr Hickey was not employed by the department but was employed by the school’s board of management even though his salary was paid by the State.
In May, the Supreme Court opted not to award the State its costs, estimated to amount up to €750,000, against Ms O’Keeffe who welcomed that ruling before revealing that she was considering appealing to Europe.
Ms O’Keeffe told The Irish Times yesterday that she still firmly believed that the department had failed in its responsibilities to protect her when she was abused by Hickey and that was why she was now appealing the Supreme Court decision to Europe.
“The Department of Education, as everybody knows, paid Leo Hickey’s salary, they supervised him, they gave him recognition to teach in the school and continuously supervised him while he was in the school and they also set the curriculum which he was to follow.
“To me, there is a follow-on responsibility,” she said.
Asked how she would respond to those who might say that she should consider herself fortunate not to have been left with a huge legal bill for her actions in the Irish courts, Ms O’Keeffe was adamant that she was doing the right thing by going to Europe.
“If the same thing that happened to me in Dunderrow National School in 1973 happened to a child in a school today, the Department of Education would hold the same line and say it was not responsible and that it’s a matter for the board of management.
“Nothing is going to change my life, what has happened to me has happened and I’m going to have to live with the consequences but the Department of Education must change and take back responsibility and if going to Europe makes that happen, then it will be worth it.”
Cork-based solicitor Ernest Cantillon said Ms O’Keeffe’s appeal would seek “to dispute Ireland’s entitlement to hide behind what is termed ‘buffers’, whether they be either the Catholic Church or the boards of management of schools”.
Mr Cantillon said that he believed Ms O’Keeffe’s human rights as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights were breached by the Irish State in failing to secure her rights and protect her from degrading treatment while she was attending primary school.
Mr Cantillon pointed out that the European Court has already held that the State cannot escape liability by delegating its obligations to private bodies of individuals, be they private schools, national schools run by the Catholic Church or boards of management.
“In a previous case, that of Costello-Roberts vs the UK in 1993, the European Court of Justice found a breach of the convention by a teacher in a private school who administered corporal punishment,” said Mr Cantillon.
“If a state can be held liable for the administration of corporal punishment by a teacher in a private school, it’s reasonable to suggest that the state would also be liable for sexual abuse perpetrated in a national school,” he said.