The High Court has found that a former pupil was groomed and sexually abused by a teacher and school chaplain while she was a schoolgirl, awarding her €200,000 in damages and €10,000 in aggravated damages against the teacher and Gorey Community School.
Mr Justice Robert Eagar held that the plaintiff had proved on the balance of probabilities that the teacher wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted and abused her, and falsely imprisoned her. The court also found that the tort of grooming had been established. The judgment concerned a civil claim, and the court’s findings apply the civil standard of proof.
The plaintiff alleged that the conduct took place between 2004 and 2007, when she attended the school. The teacher denied sexual contact and claimed the case was malicious and vexatious. The judgment records evidence of contact and closeness between them, including the plaintiff being in the teacher’s bed during a school trip to Gambia, their sleeping close together on a trip to Cologne, frequent texts, and the teacher driving her home after a cinema trip. The judge found the plaintiff credible and the teacher’s evidence inconsistent and unconvincing. Independent witnesses supported parts of her account.
The court ruled that the plaintiff’s psychological injury substantially impaired her capacity to sue, so the Statute of Limitations did not prevent her claim for damages for injury caused by the teacher.
It also found the school negligent for failing to put a safe system of checks in place to monitor the teacher, and held it vicariously liable for his tortious acts. The judge said the teacher’s abuse was closely connected to his work as chaplain and teacher, including his authority to organise trips and select pupils to attend them.
The claim against Denis Brennan, named as a representative of the Catholic Church, was not upheld. The court found insufficient evidence that the teacher’s priestly role gave him influence over pupils or that his conduct was sufficiently connected to the Church. It noted that he was employed by the school and that the evidence did not establish direct employment by the Church.
The teacher’s counterclaim, which alleged that the plaintiff’s case was malicious and had caused him emotional harm, was rejected in the judgment’s findings. The court said the manner in which he brought it could arguably have aggravated the plaintiff’s injuries. The judgment records a 34-day trial.