A Dublin barman tried to commit suicide after he was sexually abused by a priest on a number of occasions while he was a child in care at Madonna House nearly 20 years ago, it was claimed in the High Court yesterday.
The court was told the alleged abuser had made a statement in 1993 admitting he had abused the child, but no prosecution had been taken.
The alleged victim, now in his late 20s, claims the Eastern Health Board entered into an arrangement with his mother in 1974 under which she paid monies and the board accepted liability for his care and maintenance at Madonna House, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
He has taken a civil action against the board and Madonna House for damages for alleged negligence and breach of contract and duty of care.
Mr Justice Kelly recommended yesterday that the man, who the court heard is still receiving psychiatric treatment, should not be identified by the media.
The EHB denies the claims or that the man suffered the abuse alleged or any loss or damage. It pleads the acts or circumstances alleged fail to disclose any valid cause of action against the board. If they did, the EHB claims that delay in instituting the proceedings makes it unjust and unfair for the board to defend them and prejudices it.
For Madonna House, it is contended that the action is statute-barred and that the Sisters of Charity are not vicariously liable for any loss or injury sustained by the man and that there was no breach of duty of care.
Mr Denis McCullough SC, for the Sisters of Charity, said his clients did not deny the man was assaulted as he alleged.
His clients did not want to put the man through any greater ordeal but submitted they could not be held responsible for a wrongful assault by another person. It was not denied the alleged assailant was in the employ of Madonna House for "a very short period in 1978-79 and for two weeks in 1980", counsel added.
Mr Justice Kelly was told that, subsequent to the incidents involving the plaintiff, Madonna House became the subject of considerable inquiries after other episodes came to light in 1993.
Opening the case for the man, Mr Adrian Hardiman SC said his client had made a serious suicide attempt in 1993 and came under the care of psychiatric services. His background was thoroughly investigated and "these matters" had come to light. The court would be satisfied from the evidence of the plaintiff and professionals that he had grave difficulty coming to terms with the matters and had kept them "bottled up".
He had now come to terms with the matters to the extent that he was in steady employment as a barman. But he was prone to certain difficulties every few months and attended a psychologist.
Mr Hardiman said that in the late 1970s and early 1980s a person who was or subsequently became a Catholic priest had occupied a room in a chalet in which his client and other children were accommodated. The priest had made a statement to a Garda sergeant in 1993 admitting that he had sexually abused the plaintiff, but no prosecution had been taken.
Counsel said there would be evidence of drastic failures of all kinds of procedures and of manifest shortcomings at Madonna House and of a total failure to address these for many years.
He submitted a paedophile was allowed to be employed there and the defendants were negligent in that they failed to monitor or supervise him and had let him sexually assault the plaintiff.
In evidence, the man's mother said she applied to the EHB in 1974 for her son to be taken into care. She understood the child would be in the care of the board and kept in Madonna House, where she worked. She met a sister who asked her to sign a form. Some £2 was to be taken every week for his care out of her £8 weekly wages. A social worker visited her son from time to time, she said. After that social worker's retirement, she saw nobody else from the EHB.
The man's mother said her son stayed at Madonna House until he was 18. She saw him once or twice a week but she was not in charge of him. A sister told her not to make it known he was her son when she was working there and one or two staff members knew he was her child.
The children were looked after by the house father. There were five children's chalets with about 10 or 12 children in each.
There would be two house parents, who worked shifts. They fed and dressed the children and took them for walks. The house father was a student priest when he first came to work.
The mother said her son was "happy in himself". The first inkling she had that anything was amiss was when she visited him in St Patrick's Hospital in 1993 and he told her about what had happened in Madonna House.
The hearing continues today.