Traveller girl, 15, gets €20k settlement against Zara and security firm over changing room incident

Dakota Joyce and her sister would frequently visit stores and photograph themselves in the latest ladies and girls’ fashions, which they would then promote and recommend to their TikTok followers, court heard.

Two Traveller sisters, who have thousands of online followers on their influencer accounts, have between them won €40,000 damages against top retailer Zara and its security company, Bidvest Noonan, for publicly defaming them.

On Tuesday, the companies each agreed to pay 15-year-old Dakota Joyce €10,000 compensation in settlement of her claim for defamation of character.

Zara and Bidvest Noonan had intended to fight Dakota’s case on Tuesday at the Circuit Civil Court but succumbed at the last minute following her 20-year-old sister Krystle’s success last month when awarded €20,000 damages against them by Judge Roderick Maguire. 

Judge Maguire had heard a female security guard had opened a fitting room curtain while Krystle was only partly dressed.

Judge Christopher Callan, who dealt with Tuesday’s case involving Dakota and approved the €20,000 settlement offer to her, described the actions of both defendants, in Zara’s flagship store in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, as egregious.

He heard Dakota, 13 at the time, who sued through her mother Tracey Joyce, of Glendhu, Ratoath Road, Dublin 15, had been trying on clothes with her sister Krystle in the fitting cubicle when accosted by the security guard, who had pulled back the curtain.

Barrister Esther Earley, who appeared for Dakota with Mariah Donnelly, of Michael Kelleher Solicitors, James Street, Dublin, described what happened as an unsavoury incident against two girls socially profiled by the defendants as members of the Travelling community.

Ms Earley said the Joyce sisters would frequently visit stores and photograph themselves in the latest ladies and girls’ fashions, which they would then promote and recommend to their TikTok followers, naming the shops in complimentary mode where the items could be purchased.

Counsel told Judge Callan Dakota was stunned and distressed when she had heard the Bidvest Noonan security member repeatedly say within the hearing of other people: “I am calling the guards.” 

Ms Earley said both girls had a social media presence and did their best to raise awareness for the Travelling community, of which they were members. 

When Dakota had asked if she could leave the changing area, both girls had been advised by security they were not being allowed to leave. They had been eventually allowed out on the shop floor.

Counsel said there had been an implication Dakota was disreputable, dishonourable and had been engaged in criminal activity.

“Dakota suffered stress, emotional suffering, embarrassment and concern that her reputation had been damaged and brought into ridicule and contempt,” Ms Earley told the court.

In Krystle’s earlier case, which had been contested by both defendants, Judge Maguire found in particular the evidence of two defence witnesses had not been persuasive or at all credible and left “glaring inconsistencies".