Award for man abused as boy by worker

A man who was sexually abused as a child by a care worker when he visited a friend in a Kilkenny orphanage in the 1970s, was today awarded €75,000 by the High Court.

The man, 38, who now lives in Spain, sued the Dept of Education as well as St Joseph’s Industrial School, in Kilkenny, where the incident happened.

The man was abused by house parent Myles Brady when, at the age of 11, he went to see a friend who was a resident at the orphanage, run by the Sisters of Charity Roman Catholic religious community, in May 1976.

Brady died in prison in 1999 after being convicted of paedophile offences.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins said the victim of the incident was “a patently truthful witness who in no way exaggerated his suffering or symptoms as a result of the assault“.

Because he was not himself a resident at the orphanage, the man who took the action does not qualify for compensation under a scheme established by the Government for victims of State and religious-run institutions.

The man involved was said to have had psychological problems since being abused and to have made suicide attempts.

Evidence on his behalf was given by Edward Murphy, a childcare worker with the South Eastern Health Board.

He was employed at the Kilkenny orphanage as Brady’s assistant, at the time of the abuse incident.

Mr Murphy told the court he had become concerned over allegations made to him by a number of boys about Brady.

He confronted Brady, who denied the allegations, so Mr Murphy twice presented the allegations to the Sister in charge of the orphanage.

Frustrated that no action was taken, Mr Brady left his job and set out in his letter of allegation that Brady was not a suitable person to be working with young children and that it was “an unsafe situation“.

Mr Justice O’Higgins said that if an investigation had been undertaken in response to Mr Murphy’s complaints, it was highly likely that “necessary action” would have been taken against Brady, who would not then have been in a position to abuse the victim caught up in today’s proceedings.

The judge added: “Unfortunately and inexplicably, no such investigation took place, and this lack of action constituted negligence.

Mr Justice O’Higgins ruled that the Dept of Education had not been responsible for what had happened.