A woman who was sexually abused as an eight-year-old by her teacher last night expressed satisfaction with how her appeal went at the European Court of Human Rights against an Irish Supreme Court decision that the State was not legally liable for the abuse she suffered.
Louise O’Keeffe (48) from west Cork said she believed that her case had been well presented by David Holland SC and Alan Keating before the 17 judges of the court in Strasbourg.
“I’m pleased with how it went,” she said. “We had a very good presentation and I believe we got a good hearing from the judges and they asked a number of questions which we responded to in our summarising of the case. It went well overall, so I’m quite pleased.”
Counsel for Ms O’Keeffe opened with a 30-minute presentation before Feichín McDonagh SC replied with a 30-minute presentation. This was followed by a series of questions from the judges which were responded to by both sides in two 10-minute summaries.
Judgment was reserved in the appeal which follows a decision by the Supreme Court that it was the board of management of Dunderrow National School in Co Cork which was liable for damages for abuse suffered by Ms O’Keeffe at the hands of teacher Leo Hickey.
Ms O’Keeffe had sued the Department of Education but the Supreme Court upheld a High Court ruling she should have brought the action against the school’s board of management as it had decided which teachers were to be employed.