€493,000 award for sex abuse overturned

A €493,000 award to a woman who claimed she was repeatedly sexually abused as a child by a relative has been overturned by the Court of Appeal because of delay in bringing the action.

Caroline McNamee, aged 40, from Mullingar, Co Westmeath, and now living in England, sued Michael Boyce, aged 71, a farm labourer from Rathconrath, Mullingar.

She claimed he began sexually assaulting her from the age of four and the assaults, including rape, buggery, and forced oral sex, continued until 1992.