A woman broke down at the High Court yesterday as she told of how she was treated by the owner of a south Dublin dry cleaners, whom she claims subjected her to sustained sexual and physical assaults over her 19 years employment with the company.
Karen Murphy (40), formerly of Ringsend, Dublin, but now living in Wicklow, has alleged that Danny Hoey, owner of Craft Cleaners, Upper Baggot Street, Dublin, regularly touched her on her arms and shoulders and fondled her buttocks.
Ms Murphy is suing Mr Hoey, Ailesbury Road, Dublin, and Craft Cleaners Ltd, Upper Baggot Street, Dublin, for damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained as a result of alleged sexual assault and assault and battery allegedly perpetrated by Mr Hoey.
It is claimed that from the time she began working at the dry cleaners at the age of 14 in 1980 until she left her job in 1999, she was subjected to repeated assaults, battery, infliction of emotional suffering, intimidation and abuse of a verbal, physical and sexual nature at the hands of Mr Hoey in his capacity as a manager of Craft Cleaners.
It is claimed that when Ms Murphy first went to work at Craft Cleaners, she was a young impressionable girl of 14, with limited education and limited experience of the world.
The defendants deny the alleged assaults took place or that Ms Murphy was subjected to assault, battery intimidation and physical and sexual abuse.
In evidence yesterday, Ms Murphy cried as she told how Mr Hoey opened the button of her trousers and then put his hand down the front of them and put his hand in her pants.
"I pulled his hand back out. I found it very hard to deal with," she said. "He had gone further than he had ever gone before. I knew I could not stay there any longer."
She said she never liked to wear a skirt at work. This was because if she was going upstairs, Mr Hoey would come behind her and put his hand up her skirt, she said.
She wore a pin on her bra at work because Mr Hoey had snapped open the bra of another girl and she was afraid the same thing would happen to her, Ms Murphy also said.
When she left Craft Cleaners in 1999, she was happy to walk away from it, she added.
The hearing before Mr Justice Paul Gilligan continues today.