A woman told a court yesterday that after using the toilet in a GAA club in 2000, she found herself locked in for hours in the middle of the night.
Jeanette O'Brien (50) said that after a visit to the toilet in St Vincent's GAA Club, Casino Park, Fairview, Dublin, she emerged to total darkness and screaming alarm bells. "Everyone had gone and I was locked in," she told the Circuit Civil Court.
"The alarm bells were going and I was frightened." She had been unable to sleep properly for months and suffered from bells ringing in her ears.
Ms O'Brien, a civil servant, Drumcondra, Dublin, told her counsel John Kehoe she had been in the club with friends.
Just before 1am on May 5th, 2000, she went to the toilet. She used the toilet and brushed her hair and could not have been much more than five minutes.
After she realised she had been locked in, she wandered around in the dark and eventually found a public phone on the landing.
She got in touch with her husband who raised the alarm. Gardaí eventually came and dropped her at her home just before 6am. Circuit Court president Mr Justice Matthew Deery awarded Ms O'Brien €7,000 in damages against club trustees Jack Gilroy, Tony Hanahoe and Noel Rooney.
Her friends had waited for her downstairs but after having been assured by the caretaker that there was no one left there, they had assumed she had walked on alone.
The caretaker had told the court he was old-fashioned and would never go into a women's toilet. He always checked by thumping on the door and shouting "is there anyone in there?"