Woman awarded €140,000 damages for sex abuse

A High Court jury has awarded €140,000 damages to a Co Donegal woman after finding she was sexually assaulted as a young child over a two year period in her own home by a former Presbyterian Minister who gave her piano lessons.

The award, including aggravated and exemplary damages of €20,000, plus costs, was made to the 34-year-old mother-of-two against Graham Stewart, a former Presbyterian minister, now living at Milverton Green, Luton, England, and with a previous address at Bloomfield Road, Belfast.

Mr Stewart had filed a defence denying the claims but failed to appear in court today for the action before Mr Justice Eamon De Valera and a jury. The judge said the case would proceed as Mr Stewart was aware it was for hearing and solicitors acting for him had been allowed come off record as they were unable to get instructions.

The jury was told Mr Stewart is no longer a Presbyterian minister after a judicial committee of that church found against him in relation to complaints made against him by the woman and three other girls.

Michael Carson SC, for the woman, said this was a simple but serious case and the jury should award aggravated damages in light of Mr Stewart's conduct at the time of the abuse and afterwards. Counsel also said the woman had made complaints to the gardaí but Mr Stewart was not prosecuted "for whatever reason".

In evidence, the woman said Mr Stewart phoned her twice in 1996 trying to dissuade her from pursuing her complaints and had told her he, not she, would be believed by the Church. She said he had "more or less admitted" what had happened and asked to meet her but she refused. She was concerned Mr Stewart had access to children as a minister.

In his charge to the jury, Mr Justice De Valera said if they accepted the uncontradicted evidence, they were entitled to consider whether aggravated and/or exemplary damages should be awarded given Mr Stewart's conduct during and after the abuse, including his contacting the woman, not turning up in court and being a teacher in a position of trust.

The judge also expressed concern about high awards of damages and said, while the woman's injury was "gross and severe" and she was entitled to "significant damages", she was "not a quadriplegic" and the jury should not "lose the run" of themselves.

After one hour's deliberation, the jury returned with their verdict that the woman was assaulted by Mr Stewart. They awarded general or compensatory damages of €120,000, plus €10,000 for aggravated and €10,000 for exemplary damages.

Earlier, the woman told the court the abuse occurred on about 40 or more occasions when Mr Stewart was giving her piano lessons in her family home in Co Donegal between 1982 and 1984 when she was aged between eight and nine and he was in his late twenties.

The abuse ended when Mr Stewart went to Belfast and she later learned he was a Presbyterian minister.

She had blocked out the abuse until one day in October 1996 after her mother died when the memories came flooding back and she could recall what happened as if it were yesterday and felt very upset. The memories would come back frequently, especially after she gave birth. She attended counselling for some years which helped but she still had recollections of the abuse.

Leo Finnegan, a consultant psychologist, said the woman had attended him. While she had learned to cope with the levels of distress asociated with memories of the abuse, she would have an ongoing problem in that regard, he said.