Abuse victim awarded €450,000

A High Court judge has awarded €450,000 damages to a woman after finding her life was devastated as a result of being sexually abused by a man over a 10-year period, beginning when she was just four years old.

Mr Justice George Birmingham said the €450,000 sum was an appropriate amount of damages former accountant Bernard Delaney must pay Sinead McCarthy-Garofalo for the abuse he inflicted on her throughout her childhood.

He described as “harrowing” the woman’s account of what had happened to her as a result of the abuse and said it “devastated and blighted” every aspect of her life.