How the Louise O’Keeffe case exposed the State’s response to child sexual abuse victims

Nearly three decades after Leo Hickey’s conviction, survivors say the State continues to resist meaningful accountability and redress

Louise O’Keeffe invested 16 years of her life in the fight for justice after she was the victim of sexual abuse in Dunderrow National School, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

The State has a long record of treating wronged citizens as the enemy. This usually arises when the State, through one of its agencies, has perpetrated the wrong.

From that point, the citizen, on whose behalf the State is supposed to act, is cast out beyond the care and protection of the State as if she or he were actually the perpetrator.