Solicitor expresses concern State may continue to fight claims for damages over sexual abuse in schools

A solicitor acting for some 20 victims of sexual abuse in day schools has expressed concern that the State may continue to fight their actions in the courts despite a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling.

James MacGuill said he was concerned at the response of the State to date to a European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Cork woman Louise O'Keeffe who was sexually abused by her teacher, Leo Hickey, at Dunderrow National School in west Cork in the early 1970s.

The court ruled in January that Ireland had failed to meet its obligation to protect Ms O'Keeffe from the sexual abuse she suffered while a primary school pupil after the Irish Supreme Court had ruled that Ireland was not liable for the abuse.

Action plan

On Friday, the Department of Education issued a statement on its website in which it said it had drawn up an action plan to be published by the Council of Europe in response to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Ms O’Keeffe’s case.

Speaking to The Irish Times Mr MacGuill said he had not been approached by any Government officials in respect of the review of any of the cases where he is representing day school child sex abuse survivors and he expressed concern about the State's attitude to the European ruling.

Review

“I know I haven’t been approached as any part of this review in respect of my clients – I don’t believe the State has changed its mind at all – I don’t think they have learned from the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in the O’Keeffe case,” he said.

“I think the exercise of review [of the outstanding cases] has been conducted and concluded but it wasn’t a review that was seeking out ways of compensating people who have been badly affected – it was a way of trying to minimise the State’s legal exposure.

“We have been litigating this issue for 15 years so the attitude of the State doesn’t surprise us one little bit – if there was a genuine acceptance of the principles set out in the O’Keeffe judgment from Strasbourg, this exercise could have been completed a long time and these cases already resolved.”