‘Thorny issues’ in bid to set aside €4.7m award

A judge said she will have to deal with “difficult and thorny” issues over a bid to set aside a landmark €4.7m award for the sexual abuse of two girls by a man who, it is claimed, may be suffering from dementia.

In November, retired company director Joseph Carrick was ordered to pay €4m to Jacqueline O’Toole and €700,000 to her cousin, Geraldine Nolan, after two separate High Court juries found he raped them when they were children.

Mr Carrick, aged 72, Carysfort Woods, Blackrock, Co Dublin, was not represented during those trials, claiming he was unable to pay his solicitors, and he also did not represent himself.

A month ago, after Carrick got new solicitors, the High Court heard there might be an application to have those awards set aside and a new trial ordered because Carrick’s new lawyers had received instructions that there were serious questions about Carrick’s mental capacity at the time of the trials.

Carrick’s lawyers asked for more time for further medical investigations despite objections from counsel for the women, who had already got freezing orders on Carrick’s assets and were seeking to have a receiver appointed over some of them, along with an immediate payout from a €120,000 pension fund he owns.

Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne allowed further time for medical investigations and also ordered that medical records be furnished to the women’s lawyers with a view to them having their own examination carried out on him.

Judge Dunne adjourned the case to Apr 22 for the High Court to be further updated.