The High Court assessed damages at €200,000 against J.K. after accepting A.G.’s evidence that he assaulted and raped her in May 1999. It dismissed her negligence claim against the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ireland and the Attorney General, finding that the Gardaí owed no duty of care in the circumstances described.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Hedigan on 25 February 2011, said judgment had already been entered against J.K. because he had not entered a defence. The court’s task in this judgment was to assess damages against him and decide A.G.’s claim against the other defendants.
The court found that Gardaí brought J.K. to A.G.’s home after his wife, B.C., was found dead and the house was preserved for investigation. A.G. agreed to accommodate him. The next day, she said, J.K. attacked and raped her. The judgment records differing accounts of some events around the Gardaí bringing J.K. to her home and her son’s subsequent request that Gardaí remove him.
A.G. alleged that the Gardaí and State defendants were negligent in bringing J.K. to her home without telling her that his wife’s death was suspicious or taking steps to protect her. The defendants argued that the Garda investigation was at an early stage, that they did not know of J.K.’s previous convictions or have reason to believe he posed a threat, and that A.G. had welcomed him.
The judge held that bringing J.K. to A.G.’s home was part of the Gardaí’s investigative functions: they needed to preserve the scene, had no grounds then to arrest him, and could not leave him without accommodation. Citing Irish decisions on the public interest in allowing police to investigate and prosecute crime, the court concluded that no duty of care arose from those actions.
The judge also said that, even if a duty existed, the evidence did not establish that the attack was reasonably foreseeable. The Gardaí did not know of J.K.’s UK convictions for rape and assault, or of a minor Irish conviction from his youth. The court found A.G. had opened her home to him and the Gardaí had no reason to fear for her safety until she asked them to remove him; they then did so promptly.
The judge accepted A.G.’s account of the attack and described it as a violent violation of the hospitality she had offered. He assessed general damages at €150,000 for pain and suffering to date and €50,000 for future pain and suffering. He said he would hear counsel about any updated particulars of special damage; the judgment does not set out a final special-damages award.