Last-minute application to stop RTÉ show refused
Elderly residents at Lees Cross, Swords, Co Dublin were shown being verbally bullied into taking their medication. If they refused to take their medication they were forcefully told by one member of staff that they would have to go to hospital.
Visitors to the home told of seeing elderly residents walking along the corridors with soiled incontinent nappies around their ankles or, of other residents naked from the waist down.
The expose showed one elderly woman being strapped into a restraining chair, where she was held for long periods of time, and staff sleeping through their shift.
Families spoke of the rapidly deteriorating conditions they witnessed in relations who were admitted to the home.
A lack of experienced staff on duty was highlighted in the investigation.
The home caters to 66 residents, most of whom would have been placed there by the Health Service Executive or as wards of the courts.
The operators of a nursing home at Leas Cross in Swords, Co Dublin, yesterday lost a last-minute High Court attempt to stop the broadcast of last night’s RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme.
A separate application for a similar injunction by the home’s Director of Nursing, Denise Cogley, was also rejected.
In her application, Ms Cogley claimed the programme had defamed her.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke refused the applications on the grounds that any damages awarded would be an adequate remedy if either applicant was successful in any future legal claim.
The judge said he was of the view that it raised important public interest issues.
The judge also said there might be serious questions involved for policy and the implementation of policy for the Government and State bodies.
Earlier, the judge was told the programme alleged patients received substandard care at the home, that bedding was not changed when wet, that force was used to try and compel a patient to take medication and there was a failure to ensure trained staff were available.
The programme, which was previewed in private by the judge, included footage secretly filmed inside the Leas Cross home by an RTÉ reporter who is also a qualified care worker and who had worked for some weeks at the home.
Mr Justice Clarke said, given the right to freedom of expression and that the programme raised matters of important public interest, the court should be slow to grant prior restraint orders.
He said he was satisfied this was not such a clear case of defamation to justify the granting of an order restraining the programme. He was also saying this was not a case where the plaintiffs would not succeed in establishing defamation.
The judge said he would give a judgment on June 8.
The judge remarked the programme was at least open to the view that it portrayed Ms Cogley as having to cope with trying to improve a situation that started from a very bad base. Most of the specific cases in the programme appeared to have occurred before she had any involvement at Leas Cross. There were two specific occasions where she was shown as exhorting the staff to try and improve.
The judge quoted with approval from a New Zealand court decision to the effect that the media should not presume that the end of news gathering justified the means. If information was gathered by means which were subsequently shown to be unlawful, the courts would be very careful to ensure rights of other persons were protected and that the media could not benefit from unlawful conduct by claiming it was acting in the public interest.
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