A woman who was repeatedly sexually assaulted from the age of 12 by a Co Wexford publican, a family friend, has been awarded record damages of €600,000 by a jury at the High Court.
The man in question, Simon Murphy, who is in prison, had admitted the abuse and the jury was asked to assess damages for the woman, now aged in her twenties.
The award is believed to be the highest ever made by a High Court jury and the action is one of the first of its kind.
The assaults took place between 1990 and 1995 when the plaintiff was aged 12 to 17 years. The court heard the victim was too frightened until 1997 to speak out about the abuse, fearing it would cause terrible trouble for her family and Murphy's family.
The abuse, Mr Turlough O'Donnell SC, said had caused the victim trauma during her childhood, adolescence and adult life.
The plaintiff's family and Murphy's family were friends and used to visit each other regularly. The plaintiff lived in Dublin and Murphy — now serving a jail sentence imposed in June 2002 — lived in Co Wexford, where he ran a public house and retail premises. The abuse took place at Murphy's premises and at the girl's home.
Murphy, formerly of The Hollow, Ramsgrange, New Ross, Co Wexford, was represented by a full legal team at today's hearing. In 2002, he was sentenced to eight years in prison on a number of counts of sexual abuse against four girls, including the plaintiff in the present case. Two years of that term were suspended.