Patsy McGarry relates the harrowing experiences of a mildly-autistic woman.
Gráinne, a middle aged woman, is mildly autistic. She lived at home until she was 4½ and was then sent to a special school.
She stayed there until she was about 19. Her father Seán (names have been changed at the family's request) recalled she had "a brilliant career" at that school. In her last two years there, she began to behave in an aggressive and disturbed manner. At the time everyone was puzzled by this change of personality. Gráinne effectively had a breakdown.
She also had to leave the school as she was now too old to stay there. There were no places in the small number of village communities for adults with autism, so she returned home. She remained there, receiving fortnightly injections from a visiting nurse, until 1984 when she spent some time at a Midland Health Board psychiatric hospital. Then a place in a community for intellectually disabled adults, in Duffcarrig, Co Wexford, was found for her. She was so distressed and disruptive there that she was returned home after about 12 months. She went back to the psychiatric hospital and was there from 1985 until 2002, visiting her family for up to five days each month.
During her years in that psychiatric hospital she was a patient in a mixed ward, Séan said. In 1999 she was seriously ill with a thyroid-related problem. It was then her family became concerned about the high dosage of drugs she was being given.
Some family members came to believe her illness was related to the drugs dosage, and an agreement was reached with medical staff that this would be greatly reduced. It was also agreed that if Gráinne became disturbed she would be let home, where she could relax.
Séan insists neither agreement was upheld and spoke of finding Gráinne as heavily sedated as before on subsequent visits. That, Gráinne's neglected appearance and whispers from fellow patients of "Take her home, take her home" prompted the family to take action in March 2002.
Despite resistance from the hospital authorities, who said they had no right to remove Gráinne, they took her home.
They found some of her toenails were up to an inch long. A visit to a chiropractor established that some toes had become infected. Her teeth were black. A visit to a dentist led to 23 of her teeth being filled.
She was very disturbed in the home at this time and in August 2002 was admitted to another psychiatric hospital, but with a very different regime, especially where drugs were concerned. She was "very, very difficult" there at the beginning, but soon settled down. On later visits home she was "pretty perfect".
About April of last year Gráinne first said to her father that she had been raped at the previous hospital. He let it pass. He asked her about it on the next visit, and she denied it. On a visit the following week he again asked her, "and she cried". She told him how two men, both also patients, had raped her at the previous psychiatric hospital.
Séan spoke to two psychiatrists, neither of whom was involved with either psychiatric hospital, and asked what he should do.
One told him to find out what Gráinne wanted done. The other advised him to "do nothing". Séan decided to speak to the psychiatrist treating Gráinne. He also spoke to Gráinne further about what had happened to her. It was then she told him about her rape, when she was 18, in the school she had attended.
It helped explain a lot to Séan and his family. By that stage last year it had also emerged that Gráinne had been raped repeatedly by five named fellow patients in the previous psychiatric hospital where she had been resident, and that this began in 1991, continuing until she left in 2002.
Séan's and Gráinne's psychiatrist at the hospital where she is now resident met her to discuss what had happened.
Her psychiatrist met her again, separately and unaccompanied by any family member. The psychiatrist then contacted Gráinne's father to say she was convinced by Gráinne's story and would have to contact gardaí.
As it happened, Séan had already done so.