It is just and proper State is liable for children abused in schools, court told

IT is “grossly utilitarian” to argue that the State as a matter of public policy should have no liability for the sexual abuse of children in national schools because this would lead to many other claims, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.

The State and taxpayer benefit from the national school system of education which is a public project and it is “just and proper” the State should pay the cost of the few children abused while attending those schools, David Holland SC argued.

He urged the five-judge court to discount the State’s claim that holding it vicariously liable for 20 sexual assaults by school principal Leo Hickey on Louise O’Keeffe when she was a pupil at Dunderrow National School in 1973 would “open the floodgates” for claims.