A man who claims his late wife was traumatised after witnessing an alleged physical and sexual assault by three nuns of a girl in the 1960s at an institution run by the Presentation Sisters has brought a claim for compensation.
The Union of Presentation Sisters, south-eastern province, yesterday initiated High Court proceedings aimed at securing a meeting with the alleged victim of the alleged physical and sexual assault, who has not herself taken any proceedings against the order and was said to have denied any abuse took place.
In seeking leave to bring proceedings against the Residential Institutions Redress Board seeking an order to hold discussions with the alleged victim, Mr Paul Gardiner SC, for the sisters, said while his clients understood the alleged victim had said no abuse was perpetrated against her, a claim for compensation had been made to the board by the husband of a former resident of the institution allegedly involved.
Counsel said the husband was claiming his wife (who is now deceased) had, as a resident in the institution, witnessed the alleged victim being physically and sexually assaulted by three sisters and was as a result traumatised throughout her life.
It was in the context of dealing with the husband's claim that the sisters were seeking to interview the alleged victim, counsel said.
Under the Residential Institutions Redress Act, the board could invite an order against whose members allegations were made to make a statement responding to those allegations.
The Act also provided that the spouse of a deceased former resident of an institution could bring a claim on behalf of the deceased person.
In this case, it was alleged the claimant's wife was resident in an institution run by the Presentation Sisters between 1963 and 1969, and claimed she saw three sisters abusing another girl and that this had caused trauma throughout her life. She had told her husband of the alleged abuse before she died.
Mr Gardiner said the sisters understood the alleged victim had said she was never assaulted, and they wished to meet her as part of the process of compiling their response to the claim.
However, in correspondence with solicitors, the board had pointed out it was an offence to publish any information concerning an application for compensation which information referred to any other person, including an applicant for compensation, by naming them.
The board had given the sisters the name of the alleged victim, but had asked them to take legal advice on how to deal with that information.
It was in those circumstances he was applying for leave from the High Court to seek orders, in judicial review proceedings, entitling his clients to meet the alleged victim in relation to their response to the complaint.
Mr Justice O'Donovan said he would grant leave to take proceedings to seek the orders in question and returned the matter to January 13th.