A Leitrim couple who claim their sons were being bullied at school yesterday were given High Court permission to challenge their conviction for failing to send one child to school.
Mr Ben O'Floinn, counsel for Mr James and Ms Lucy Duffy, Derrynahinch, Drumkeerin, Co Leitrim, said the Duffys were convicted in the District Court last October. They lost their Circuit Court appeal against the conviction and were now seeking a High Court judicial review of that decision.
Mr O'Floinn said Section 4 of the School Attendance Act, 1926, imposed an obligation on children to be sent to school unless there was a reasonable excuse for not doing so. He claimed Judge Matthew Deery of the Circuit Court misdirected himself when he decided only one issue, that their son, Rory, had not been sent to school.
Mr O'Floinn said an English education expert, Dr Alan Thomas, had issued a report in which he noted that there had been a history of both the Duffy children, Gary and Rory, being bullied. Dr Thomas believed that the education being given to Rory at home by his parents was satisfactory.
At the hearing before Judge Deery, the evidence from Dr Thomas had not been dealt with and this may have occurred because the Duffys were unrepresented at the Circuit Court hearing and did not have the benefit of legal assistance.
Mr Duffy in an affidavit said they had been educating their children at home since 1995. He alleged that Judge Deery had described an incident about a teacher striking Rory as "a once-off incident".
Mr Duffy said corporal punishment of any sort had been outlawed since 1982.