A man has been awarded €315,000 damages at the High Court over being “systematically” sexually abused by a former Marist Brother over three years while he was a pupil at St John’s National School in Sligo.
Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill said he “entirely rejected” the denials by former Marist Brother Christopher Cosgrove, with an address at Claremorris, Co Mayo, of having abused the man, now in his 50s, at the school between 1969 and 1972.
The judge also ruled the Marist Order was vicariously liable for the acts of Cosgrove and that the then school manager, the late Canon Collins had, in his capacity as manager, a 10 per cent liability.
Because Canon Collins had not been sued, and could not now be sued due to legal time limits, the judge said he must reduce the €350,000 total damages to reflect that 10 per cent liability, with the effect the plaintiff would get €315,000.
'Recovered memory'
The case involved "recovered memory" of sexual abuse and the judge accepted the man had given a careful, reflective and truthful account of his rediscovery of memory of the abuse between 1999 and 2010.
That conclusion was easily arrived at given the “unusual, if not extraordinary”, amount of evidence from four men, former classmates of the man, corroborating the entire content of the man’s recovered memories.
One of those men had described reaching “a point of unbearable revulsion” after seeing the plaintiff being abused by the brother, the judge noted.
There could be no doubt the content of the plaintiff’s recovered memory was “accurate” and “comprehensive”, but the fact the memories of the abuse were so totally suppressed for some 30 years “said much about its impact” on him.
On the basis of all the evidence, the judge found the plaintiff, as a result of the abuse, suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder characterised initially by “extreme avoidance”. He had no settled career and no settled home life and the abuse had “greatly impaired” his life.
Earlier, the judge noted the plaintiff had no memory of the abuse when initially contacted by gardaí in 1999 about investigations into issues raised by other pupils of Cosgrove’s.
The plaintiff later spontaneously recalled, without any therapeutic or other process, memories he had suppressed for decades and that recall helped him address other difficulties, the judge found.
The plaintiff had alleged the abuse occurred in the classroom and when Cosgrove was teaching him to play drums for the school band.
The judge found the evidence of the plaintiff and the other four men was “truthful and reliable” and he described Cosgrove’s claim that their evidence was part of a conspiracy to get damages as “utterly lacking in credibility”.
On the issue of the school manager’s liability, the judge found Canon Collins probably had no role in the day-to-day management of the school as Cosgrove’s teaching activities were supervised by his congregation.
