A man who was sexually abused as a child while in care at Madonna House told the High Court yesterday he felt "very confused and frightened" afterwards.
Years later he booked himself into a hotel and slit his wrists with razor blades, he said. He had also gone to Madonna House once with others and had thrown a brick through a window. He subsequently appeared in court, paid a donation and was given the Probation Act.
When the abuse was taking place, the man said, he "did not know what was going on". He had never come across such an occurrence before.
The house father concerned had told him not to tell anybody about what had happened and he did not talk of it until many years later.
The man said he was happy at Madonna House up to the time of the incidents in 1980. He said the sister in charge there, now deceased, did an awful lot for it.
Yesterday was the second day of the action for damages taken by the man, who works as a barman and is in his late 20s, against the Eastern Health Board and Madonna House, the nominee of the Religious Sisters of Charity Provinciate.
In his evidence, the man said he had gone to live in Madonna House when he was very young. He remembered a number of chalets there, each accommodating 16 or 17 children.
There were four or five rooms in each chalet, with four or five children in each. There were boys and girls in the chalets and each also had a staff flat. There had been about 20 house fathers over a number of years.
When he was six or seven, a house father, who used to bring the children to the shops and to football matches, brought them to a local park. He noted that the house father and another boy were very close and that the house father was very protective of the boy.
While in the park, the man said, he had accidentally hit that boy and his nose bled. The house father gave him a belt across the head and told him not to say a word about it.
Asked about the house father who abused him, the plaintiff said he was very good with the children, always bringing them out and playing jokes. He remembered that house father leaving and later coming back. The house father stayed in a flat at one of the chalets but not the one in which he was living, the man said.
Asked by his counsel, Mr David McGrath SC, how the incidents affected him as he was growing up, he said he had blocked them out for periods in his teens. But they used to come back to him and as he got older he felt somebody should know.
In 1993, when he was out drinking with a few lads, he told them what had happened. They went to Madonna House and he threw a brick through a window. That evening, they were picked up by gardai. He later got the Probation Act.
On one occasion, he felt very bad, the man said. He bought razor blades and booked himself into a hotel, where he slit his wrists. He woke up after a while, rang the Garda and was taken to hospital. Later he was moved to another hospital, where he had treatment and group therapy. He was released from hospital after seven weeks.
He said he saw a psychologist on a number of occasions later. He needed to talk to somebody and felt good after the sessions.
He saw his future as very good and was getting on grand with his colleagues at work. He had ambitions to get on further and maybe settle down eventually.
Asked how he would describe his time in Madonna House, the man said it was a nice place and the sister who was in charge did an awful lot for it.
Mr Denis McCullough SC, for Madonna House, said his clients regretted what had happened and they did not challenge the man's account of what happened.
Cross-examined by Mr McCullough, the man said that when he cut his wrists, he was worried about a few things. What had happened at Madonna House was his main worry. He was also worried he might have had a sexually transmitted disease following an incident with a girl a few months previously and about life in general.
The hearing, before Mr Justice Kelly, continues today.