Abuse victim to sue gardaí for 'ignoring complaints'

A Dublin woman who claims she was beaten, raped and intimidated by her family for 36 years today won the right to take legal action against gardaí for ignoring her complaints.

The woman, who claims the abuse began when she was six years old, said officers at a Dublin Garda station told her she must have enjoyed the abuse as it took her seven years to first report it.

The 51-year-old said her brother, father and mother all carried out the harrowing attacks from 1960 to 1996 and claims the state contributed to her suffering.

The Supreme Court today gave the woman leave to sue the state.

The woman maintains the assault began when she was six years old, and she went to a Garda station in 1967, where force members told her she must have enjoyed the abuse and that she must have got something out of it or she would have reported it sooner.

She said gardaí took no action to save her and sent her home, where she says she was continually and systematically beaten, intimidated, indecently and incestually assaulted and raped until 1996.

When she was 19, the woman had a child by her brother and developed suicidal tendencies.

The brother was jailed for 15 years in 1997 after pleading guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge on a number of occasions, rape and sexual assault.

He has since been granted a retrial in respect of the allegation of rape.

The woman sued gardaí for damages but the proceedings were struck out in 2004 on the grounds of delay by the High Court.

The state argued 34 members of the force worked in the station at the time, with eight now deceased and three too infirm or old to be questioned.

It also stated there were no records available showing any reports at the station at the time.

The victim appealed the High Court ruling on 10 grounds, including that the judge failed to give due significance to the fact that the state, its servants or agents contributed to her inability to bring the action promptly.

In an 11-page judgment, Ms Justice Susan Denham overturned the ruling, stating to permit the dismissal would not be fair.

“The proceedings brought by the plaintiff raise the issue of the responsibility for that delay,” she said.

“The plaintiff claims that the state is responsible.

“Also at the core of the plaintiff’s claims is that a report was not made about her complaints to An Garda Síochána.

“As a matter of justice, in all the circumstances of the case, the state may not avail of the issue of delay as a reason to dismiss these proceedings about today.

“Nor may the state avail of the issues of the absence of records as a reason to dismiss these proceedings.

“To permit such a dismissal would not be fair.”