The High Court has dismissed an appeal by F.P. against the Information Commissioner’s refusal to release further records held by the then health board and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. The appeal concerned records about the appellant and his former stepdaughter, including material connected with an assessment of allegations made against him when she was a child.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice McDermott on 20 December 2016, concerned a point of law under section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act 1997, as amended. F.P. challenged the Commissioner’s decision of 23 January 2014, made after an earlier High Court ruling had set aside the Commissioner’s 2005 decisions and sent the matter back for fresh consideration.
The earlier investigation had ended with the allegations classified as “unconfirmed”, according to records and correspondence described in the judgment. The court noted that the appeal was not a hearing into whether the allegations were true, whether the investigation was fair, or whether any person had acted maliciously. Those issues, the judge said, were outside the specific FOI appeal and could be pursued through other legal procedures where appropriate.
The Commissioner found that the withheld records contained joint personal information relating to F.P. and other people, including the former stepdaughter and her mother. He concluded that the public interest in granting access did not outweigh the privacy interests protected by the Act. Some records had already been released, including correspondence and material that, the Commissioner said, gave an outline of how the public bodies handled the allegations.
F.P. argued that further access would support procedural fairness, protect his good name, help identify possible legal claims and discourage false allegations. The court accepted that openness and accountability in how public bodies handle child abuse allegations are matters of public interest. But it agreed that the Commissioner had considered those interests and was entitled to conclude that the material already released served them to some degree. The appellant’s personal reasons for seeking more records did not themselves establish an overriding public interest under the Act.
The judge also upheld the Commissioner’s consideration of the privacy interests of the former stepdaughter and her mother, including the stepdaughter’s objection to release as a young adult. The court said the Commissioner could take account of the sensitive nature of the material, the time that had passed, and the fact that FOI law did not allow restrictions on how released records might be used or shared.
The court found no error of law in the Commissioner’s decision and dismissed the appeal. It did not order release of additional records or remit the matter for another review.