Man to appeal €4.7m damages to sex abuse victims

A man ordered to pay €4.7m in damages for sexual abuse of two girls is to appeal the awards to the Supreme Court.

Last 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 had raped them when they were children.

Carrick, aged 72, of Carysfort Woods, Blackrock, Dublin, will be looking for a priority hearing before the Supreme Court. He was not represented during the High Court cases, claiming he was unable to pay for solicitors.

Last week, he lost a bid to have the awards set aside on grounds that he did not have the mental capacity to deal with the cases at the time.

In the High Court yesterday, John Rogers, for Carrick, said he was seeking a stay on the awards and on the costs of the case, pending appeal to the Supreme Court, but was not seeking to lift an injunction freezing his client’s assets.

The appeal was made both on the question of liability and on the amount of the awards, especially in light of a Supreme Court decision which reduced a High Court jury award of €650,000 to a victim of sexual abuse to €350,000.

They were also appealing last week’s High Court decision refusing to set the awards to the women aside.

Sasha Gayer, for Ms Nolan and Ms O’Toole, asked the court to order that some payment be made to her clients as a condition of any stay. She also said that since the freezing order was made on his assets, a number of steps had been taken to try to have it varied so that Mr Carrick could have an increase in living expenses.

Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, since promoted to the Supreme Court, said the fairest thing to do would be to grant a stay in circumstances, where liability and the amount of the awards were being contested, but also where the freezing order remains in place so his assets are protected in the event he is unsuccessful in his appeal.

She refused a request from Ms Gayer that the freezing of assets injunction be extended, but gave liberty to apply to the court should circumstances change.

An application for attachment and committal to prison against Carrick for alleged failure to comply with disclosure of information in relation to that injunction is still before the court, the judge noted.