BLACKPOOL (CORK, EIRE)
Irish Examiner
October 9, 2017
By Ann O’Loughlin
A 28-year old woman who was sexually abused by a school chaplain and teacher in the South East over a period of two years has been awarded €200,000 by the High Court.
Mr Justice Robert Eagar also commended the bravery of the woman in bringing her claim as he awarded a further €10,000 in aggravated damages.
He found the former chaplain had wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused the woman who was only a transition year student at secondary school when the abuse began.
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In the case which lasted 34 days the woman gave evidence of how between 2005 and 2007 she was abused and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the Catholic chaplain and teacher in her secondary school.
She said on a school trip to Gambia when she was 16 years of age, the chaplain invited her and another student to sleep in his bed with him. She said the chaplain first kissed her after she turned 17 and the sexual element between them progressed and they had oral sex about 35 times.
On a youth trip to Cologne, Germany to see the Pope, she said they had oral sex and also in the chaplain’s school office, his bedroom, car and the school oratory.
The woman had also sued the school in the South East where the man was a chaplain at the time.
She also sued the local bishop.
Mr Justice Eagar, finding the school vicariously liable, said the failure of the school to adequately monitor the behaviour of the chaplain allowed for the inappropriate relationship to develop into an abusive relationship.
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