A High Court jury award of €600,000 to a woman who had been repeatedly abused as a teenager was reduced by a quarter of a million euro at the Supreme Court yesterday.
The jury made the award in February 2004 to a woman who had been sexually assaulted over five years by Simon Murphy, of The Hollow, Ramsgrange, Co Wexford.
The woman, who is now in her mid-20s, was abused from 1990 to 1995 when she was aged between 12 and 17. Mr Murphy was a publican and shopkeeper when he was sentenced in 2002 to eight years in prison on a number of counts of sexual abuse of the plaintiff and for offences against three other women, including his sister, Nuala Murphy. Two of the eight years were suspended.
Giving the Supreme Court judgment yesterday on an appeal by Murphy, Mrs Justice Denham held that the original award was "disproportionate". While the case was "very severe and serious", it was not the "worst-case scenario".
In a judgment with which Mr Justice Geoghegan and Mr Justice McCracken agreed, Mrs Justice Denham said there was no doubt the case was one in which a jury would be entitled to award substantial damages. However, the damages awarded must be fair and reasonable.
Having considered the facts and all the circumstances, she was satisfied that €600,000 was so far in excess of a reasonable award that it was disproportionate and should be set aside.
Murphy had admitted the offence immediately on being interviewed by gardaí and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. If he had not done so, the injuries to the plaintiff might have been further aggravated.
Earlier, Mrs Justice Denham said it must be recognised that no award of money would put the woman back in the position in which she had been before the sexual abuse. No award of damages would retrive her childhood or repair the damage done to her, emotionally. No amount of money would cure her or render her future clear of the effects of the assaults.
Reacting to the judgment, Mr Colm O'Gorman, director of the One in Four Group which helps people who were abused as children, said the €600,000 award had been made by a jury and as such reflected public attitudes where damages in abuse cases were concerned.
He felt the €350,000 figure awarded yesterday on appeal pointed towards a growing consistency where such awards were concerned at the courts level.
Taken alongside the High Court award of €370,000 to Raymond Noctor on March 1st, following his abuse at St Joseph's industrial school in Kilkenny, Mr O'Gorman felt, a pattern was emerging in the courts where figures for damages in abuse cases were concerned.
