The former manager of St Joseph's Industrial School in Kilkenny and two retired Garda sergeants have denied before the High Court that a child inmate of the school had told them - in the presence of the late bishop of Ossory, Dr Peter Birch - that he had been sexually abused by a housemaster.
Sister Conception, Mr John Tuohy and Mr Eddie Geraghty told Mr Justice Finnegan yesterday that such a meeting with Mr Raymond Noctor never took place. Sister Conception said Mr Noctor had told her he was physically abused but never used the expression "sexually abused".
The judge was conducting a hearing to assess the amount of damages to be paid to Mr Noctor (45), Leinster Crescent, Dublin Road, Carlow, who, while an inmate at the school in the 1970s, suffered serious physical and sexual abuse by a housemaster at the school.
Evidence concluded yesterday, and judgment was reserved.
Mr Noctor's action is against the State, the Minister for Education, St Joseph's, the South Eastern Health Board and the Minister for Health, who have accepted liability for the failure to prevent gross indecency and assault on Mr Noctor.
Mr Noctor claims he was severely and repeatedly sexually and physically abused and tortured while in St Joseph's in the 1970s by a housemaster/careworker, David Murray, who is currently serving a prison sentence.
Yesterday Sister Conception, in evidence, said she was the institution's manager from 1972 to 1986. She had not been aware that Mr Noctor had been sexually abused.
Mr Michael Carson SC, for the defendants, said Mr Noctor had claimed to have made Sister Conception aware on a few occasions that he had been sexually abused.
Sister Conception replied that he never used the expression "sexually abused" but had told her he had been physically abused. In 1972 she had no idea of and had never heard the words "sex abuse".
She had received complaints that Murray had been physically abusing the boys in the institution's Summerhill complex.
Mr Tuohy and Mr Geraghty both said they never met Sister Conception with Bishop Birch in relation to a claim of sexual assault on Mr Noctor.
Mr Geraghty said Mr Noctor had never complained to him.