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	State Is Liable for Sex Abuse in Schools, Court Told By Tim Healy Irish Independent June 13, 2008 http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-is-liable-for-sex-abuse-in-schools- court-told-1407976.html?from=dailynews It is "grossly utilitarian" to argue that the State should have no liability for the sexual abuse of children in national schools because this would lead to many other claims relating to events in such places, the Supreme Court was told yesterday. The claim came on day two of a case taken by a woman sexually assaulted by a national school principal as a child. Louise O'Keeffe has asked the Supreme Court to rule that the Minister for Education and the State are liable for the assaults. The State and taxpayer benefited from the national school system of education which was a public project and it was "just and proper" that the State should pay the cost of the few children sexually abused while attending those schools, counsel for Ms O'Keeffe argued. In those circumstances, the five-judge court should discount the State's claim that holding it vicariously liable for some 20 sexual assaults by school principal Leo Hickey on Ms O'Keeffe when she was an eight-year-old pupil at Dunderrow National School, Co Cork, in 1973 would "open the floodgates" for claims. This is the basis of the submission by the now 43-year-old woman, of Thoam, Dunmanway, Co Cork, in her continuing appeal against the High Court's decision in 2006 that the Minister for Education and State are not vicariously liable for the assaults on her. Landmark The action is regarded as a test case with over 200 similar cases awaiting its outcome. A complaint was made in 1971 by another parent about Hickey to the acting school manager and local curate, Fr O Ceallaigh. However, Hickey remained in his post, the court heard. Ms O'Keeffe alleges the State is also vicariously liable for the failure of Fr O Ceallaigh to report the complaint to the Department of Education. After parents withdrew female children from the school in protest later in 1973, Mr Hickey ultimately resigned in January 1974. He was employed the following month at a boys' school in Ballincollig, Cork and continued to teach until his recognition as a teacher was withdrawn after criminal proceedings in the late 1990s. Hickey was jailed for three years in 1998 after pleading guilty to 21 sample charges of indecent assaults on 21 girls. Ms O'Keeffe's High Court proceedings against Hickey and the State were heard by judge Eamon de Valera in 2004 with judgment delivered in 2006. The case is expected to conclude today with judgment reserved.
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