An American expert on child sexual abuse told the High Court yesterday the abuse inflicted on a Co Sligo woman by her father represented one of the most severe cases of combined mental, physical and sexual abuse, as well as exposure to domestic violence, she had ever encountered.
With the exception of a few cases where people had actually been killed, the McColgan case was one of the most severe she had ever seen in her career, Dr Suzanne Sgroi said.
She believed Ms Sophia McColgan would require at least two years of intensive therapy before she could be expected to recover from the trauma of what had happened to her.
Having interviewed her after Thursday's court session and studied the notes regarding the case, Dr Sgroi said Ms McColgan had used various psychological coping mechanisms to deal with the sexual horrors and abuse inflicted on herself and her family by their father, Joseph."
Yesterday was the 10th day of the hearing in which Ms McColgan is suing the North Western Health Board and Dr Desmond Moran, of Stephen Street, Sligo.
Ms McColgan, formerly of Ballinacarrow, Ballymote, Co Sligo, and her two brothers and sister were physically and sexually abused by their father from the late 1970s to early 1990s. Joseph McColgan is serving a 12-year sentence after admitting a number of charges.
The defendants are claiming the case is statute-barred and are also denying negligence and breach of duty.
In court yesterday Dr Sgroi said she was editor and co-author of a number of books on the subject of child sex abuse and operated a clinic in Hartford, Connecticut.
In cases of severe physical, sexual and mental abuse, victims frequently suffered severe psychological injury and damage. This was exhibited in various forms including cognitive distortion, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other behaviours such as psychosis, severe substance abuse and selfinjurious behaviour.
Children who suffered severe sexual abuse often adopted coping mechanisms for physical or emotional escape. These might include day-dreaming and dissociation, by which people split themselves off from strong emotions.
After interviewing Ms McColgan for two hours and 15 minutes and having read evidence, she concluded that she suffered from pathological dissociation and was using this technique to cope on a day-to-day basis with ordinary events.
Ms McColgan believed going to college and getting an honours degree would empower her to protect herself and her family against their father. This was an obsessive belief. She had spoken of walling herself off from the dangers, violence and chaos in her father's home during her first two years in college.
While she had great admiration for her achievements in such difficult circumstances, and did not attach any blame to her, this was not the most appropriate action she could have taken, Dr Sgroi said. The only safe behaviour would have been to use her resources to get herself and her family out of that environment or leave herself.
Cross-examined by Mr John Rogers, for the Board, Dr Sgroi said Ms McColgan's dissociation was pathological. She agreed Dr Ivor Browne did not use the term "pathological dissociation" in relation to Ms McColgan. She said he had repeatedly said Ms McColgan was using a large amount of dissociation.
Dr Sgroi said Sophia had engaged in a very flawed process of judgment about her predicament. She denied she was substituting her own judgment for the judgment given in evidence by Ms McColgan.
She agreed with Mr Rogers that Ms McColgan could have spoken to her mother about the abuse. She had, in fact, spoken to her mother on many occasions, and her mother's response had been that she hated it, too, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Cross-examined by Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for Dr Moran, she agreed there was a much greater volume of knowledge available now about child sexual abuse than was the case 10 or 15 years ago. The hearing resumes on Tuesday before Mr Justice Johnson.