A young man who said he was "butchered", brutally raped and beaten by his father has told the High Court he should have been taken into care several years before he was.
Mr Gerard McColgan claimed yesterday the North Western Health Board did nothing for him or his family. He said when he told Dr Desmond Moran that his father had sexually abused him, the doctor did not appear to believe him and was angry and red in the face.
Yesterday was the fourth day of an action taken by Mr McColgan's sister Sophia (27), formerly of Ballymote, Co Sligo, against the North Western Health Board and Dr Desmond Moran of Sligo. Mr McColgan and two other family members have also taken proceedings.
Joseph McColgan is serving a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty to 26 token charges of assaults between the late 1970s to late 1980s and early 1990s.
In court yesterday Mr McColgan told Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for Dr Moran, that he was unaware in 1995 that Dr Moran had been involved in two case conferences on his situation in 1979 and 1983 or that Dr Moran had counselled his father 38 times between 1983 and 1984.
The hearing adjourned for 15 minutes when Mr McColgan became distressed giving evidence.
Mr McColgan said when his father went to beat him again, he ran five miles to the home of Mrs Candon, his school vice-principal.
She contacted gardai and a social worker with the health board, who brought him to a health board hostel in Geevagh. He stayed there for about a year and attended a vocational school.
He told a social worker about the physical abuse but not about the sexual abuse for a few weeks. He was frightened that his father would forcibly take him away.
Then he was taken to Dr Moran by Ms Val O'Kelly, a social worker. He thought his father was there but was not sure. His mother was very angry and it was being made out that he was lying, he said. He had also mentioned about Sophia being abused.
He said Dr Moran was very angry and red in the face. Everybody except Ms O'Kelly was angry with him and said he was lying.
Mr McColgan said he returned to Geevagh and lived there for a year, with the weekends at his grandmother's.
He said he was six or seven years old when he first told Dr Moran about being physically abused by his father. His father would be outside and Dr Moran would tell his father what Gerard had said. His father would beat him later.
He said marks still on the back of his head, hands and forehead were there when he, as a child, saw Dr Moran. He went to England in 1985 but had difficulty holding down a job. He had married.
He said that before his father's trial, his father had gone to the police in Britain and told them that Gerard and Keith were members of the Provisional IRA. The police had come to his home and indicated they might arrest him but eventually accepted his father's claims were not true.
Cross-examined by Mr John Rogers SC, for the health board, Mr McColgan said that when he was a boy he told his Granny McColgan in Sligo that he was being abused. He said she gave him a fishing rod and told him to say nothing about it.
He said he had been complaining to the health board about his father for years but it had done nothing for him or his family. Since 1985, his sole aim had been to get his father behind bars.
Mr Rogers suggested he saw Dr Moran virtually on a weekly basis. Mr McColgan agreed he saw Dr Moran from June 1983 onwards but did not recall the visits.
He did not remember being taken to Dr Moran on July 1st 1983 after he complained of being sexually abused by his father. He vaguely remembered going to Dr Moran in a car with Ms O'Kelly. He did not remember telling Ms O'Kelly details of the sexual abuse.
Mr McColgan said that, as far as he was aware, he did not withdraw the allegations against his father. Mr Rogers said Ms O'Kelly was certain he had withdrawn the allegations on September 29th 1983.
Mr McColgan said he was forced to sign a piece of paper written out by his father. He did not remember withdrawing the allegations in conversation. He said Ms O'Kelly always stood by him and he had a lot of respect for her.
Asked if he was happy in Geevagh, he said he wanted to go to his brothers and sisters and try to help them. He said he should have been in Geevagh four or six years sooner with them. The reality was that he was butchered, brutally raped and physically abused.
Asked if there was a tug-of-war between his father Joe McColgan and his grandmother, Mrs Bereen, he said: "I never wanted to be with Joe McColgan, ever."
The hearing continues today before Mr Justice Johnson.