The action being taken by a young woman against the North-Western Health Board and her family doctor for damages arising from years of abuse by her father resumes in the High Court today.
Ms Sophia McColgan's father, Joseph McColgan of Ballinacar row, Ballymote, Co Sligo, is serving a 12-year sentence for physically and sexually abusing four of his children over at least 13 years. He pleaded guilty to 26 token charges in 1995.
Her brothers, Gerard and Keith, and sister Michelle are also suing the health board and the doctor, Dr Desmond Moran of Stephen Street, Sligo. They allege that the doctor and the board were negligent in allowing the abuse to continue after the two older children, Sophia and Gerard, were brought to the attention of Sligo hospital in 1979 with injuries arising from abuse by their father. The case being heard at the moment is that taken by Sophia.
In their defence, the doctor and the board deny negligence, deny that Sophia suffered any injury, and state that, if she did, it was not the result of any activities or lack of activities by Dr Moran or health board personnel. They also argue that she was guilty of contributory negligence in that she did not tell her mother, Dr Moran or the gardai about the abuse.
The health board also does not admit, notwithstanding that her father pleaded guilty, that Sophia was ever physically assaulted or sexually abused.
When the case was adjourned on December 16th, the judge, Mr Justice Johnson, told Sophia to be prepared for psychiatric examination on behalf of the doctor and the health board. The examinations were to determine whether she had been mentally competent to take legal action on the abuse before 1992.
This had arisen because counsel for the doctor and health board, Mr Patrick Hanratty SC and Mr John Rogers SC respectively, argued that the action was statute barred. Under the Statute of Limitation, she should have taken ac tion before 1992, they argued, so this action should be ruled out.
On December 16th, the seventh day of the trial, Mr James Nugent SC, for Ms McColgan, called Ms Ruth MacNeely, a counsellor with the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre, to give evidence of Ms McColgan's state when she met her in 1995. Ms MacNeely said she was "a very fragmented person, a shell, very broken".
When Mr Nugent asked her if she would have been in a position to make any decisions about the situation in which she had found herself, Mr Rogers objected on behalf of the board. He was joined by Mr Hanratty.
Mr Nugent said the defendants had raised the issue of the Statute of Limitation. They could have chosen not to. "The onus is on them to prove it. They have to prove the person was not under a disability," he said. "These people (Sophia and Gerard) were manifestly not of sound mind." If this were the case the Statute of Limitation would not apply.
Mr Rogers said his client had no idea that the question of disability was being raised, and they would need an opportunity for Ms McColgan to be examined. Mr Hanratty also objected to the case going ahead without an examination both of Ms McColgan and her medical records for the period between 1988 and 1994.
The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, adjourned the case until today, a period of almost four weeks which included the Christmas break, to allow an examination of the files and of Ms McColgan.
If the defendants win on this issue of lapse of time, the McColgans will lose their action on a technical point. While it would be routine in a negligence case for this point to be put forward by counsel, it is optional whether it is used by the client.
Asked if it was the policy of the Department of Health to pursue such a strategy when dealing with victims of child sex abuse, a spokesman said State responsibility for childcare services lay with the health boards. "It would not be appropriate for the Department to comment on the North Western Health Board's legal strategy as the case is still being heard," he said.
He said the board did not consult the Department about its strategy, but it has kept the Department informed.
A spokeswoman for the North Western Health Board said it did not wish to comment at all on the case while it was being heard.
When the case opened on December 4th, Mr Nugent told the court Ms McColgan had been brought to a local doctor, Dr Doreen Dunleavy, in July 1979 when she was nine. She sent her to Sligo hospital and there she was identified as having been physically abused by her father. At that time she and her mother told the hospital he was also abusive to Gerard and Michelle.
In October of that year, Gerard was also brought to Dr Dunleavy and she wrote to the hospital saying he was a clear victim of childbattering. While case conferences were held, little was done.
Mr Nugent said the family doctor, Dr Moran, to whom the children were regularly brought, had a low opinion of Gerard, then 11, and described him as manipulative. He said he would deal with the problem and the health board left it to him and the public health nurse. Mr Nugent said Dr Moran threatened to send Gerard for electro-convulsive therapy if he did not stop making allegations against his father.
In 1984 a social worker, Ms Valentine O'Kelly, wrote: "It is my opinion that I am dealing with a very pathological family. The degree of abuse, both physical and sexual, is at an extraordinary level."