A former healthcare assistant who was sexually assaulted while working in Crumlin children’s hospital, says he lost a career he loved because of the incident and the hospital’s handling of it.
Jamie Keegan (28), from South Dublin, felt “completely unsupported” by Children Health Ireland (CHI), which manages the hospital, in the aftermath of the attack. He believes it would have been “taken more seriously” if perpetrated on a woman.
The assault, which was witnessed by a patient’s mother, occurred during a night shift on a 22-bed medical/surgical ward for infants and children, in May 2023.
No children were in the immediate vicinity when Mr Keegan’s colleague, also a healthcare assistant, exposed his penis, masturbated in front of Mr Keegan, rubbed himself “in a sexual way” against him and kissed him on the back of his neck.
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Joseph Cooney (37) of Tallaght Cross West, Dublin 24, was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Court on July 25th last to three months for masturbating in public and six months for sexual assault.
Mr Keegan says gardaí were not called until 10 hours after the incident which became the subject of gossip around CHI facilities. He says he was discouraged by a hospital occupational health service from attending counselling, and was not told the outcome of the hospital’s investigation.
He returned to work a week after the incident but left two months later. He could not return to his career, has not been compensated for loss of earnings, and has not received an apology from the hospital, he says.
Describing what happened, Mr Keegan says Cooney appeared intoxicated when they began work at 7.30pm on May 7th, 2023. The shift proceeded without incident, though Cooney appeared “hyper” at times.
At about 1.10am they were outside children’s rooms on the ward when the sexual assault occurred.
“He was aroused and he started kissing the back of my neck. I pushed him off me.
“He was stood up against the wall then outside a child’s room, rubbing himself and masturbating. The door was open. If the child woke they would have seen him. They could have heard him because he was making sexual noises. I was in shock.”
He reported the incident to nurses and Cooney was escorted out of the hospital.
Nursing administration was informed and there was a “briefing” with hospital management at about 8am, says Mr Keegan. Gardaí were called that day and he gave a statement.
He attended an external occupational health service engaged by CHI, whose report, dated May 15th, 2023, states: “Jamie is fit to return to work tomorrow. He is aware of counselling that is available ... However, I feel it would be of greater benefit to him to meet informally with the other staff members who witnessed the distressing incident that night.”
Mr Keegan felt “discouraged” from getting counselling. “I felt weird back in Crumlin because there was no communication [from management]. I had no idea if I was going to run into [Cooney]. I was kept out of the loop.
“I couldn’t talk about it to other staff. I just kept hearing rumours going around about what happened. I got on to HR a couple of times asking them to stop the rumours and they said they couldn’t physically stop people talking about it. In the end I had to leave.”
He was on illness benefit for 12 months and now works in a non-healthcare setting.
“I feel if Crumlin had handled it better, had taken what happened to me more seriously, supported me better, I could have stayed working there. I loved working in paediatrics because no matter how bad things were, the children would always have a smile.
“I feel if this was a woman it happened to, Crumlin would have taken this much more seriously. Crumlin weren’t listening. That’s why I’ve come to the media, to highlight that this happened and that this needs to be taken seriously, no matter who it happens to.”
Mr Keegan is preparing legal proceedings against CHI for compensation and loss of earnings.
Cliona Sadlier, executive director of Rape Crisis Ireland, says too often adult male survivors feel “particularly isolated” when sexually assaulted.
“The response of systems to adult male survivors, we know, is something we need to work on.”
A CHI spokeswoman said the organisation “will not comment” on individual staff members.
“We take the safety of our staff very seriously have both the dignity at work policy and disciplinary policy in place to protect our staff.”
