The victims attended the same school as Louise O'Keefe who won a landmark ruling against the State at the European Court of Human Rights about 12 years ago. At the age of 8 O'Keefe was sexually abused by her school principal Leo Hickey in the Cork primary school in the 1970s.
The woman who attended the school with O'Keefe and were also sexually abused have spoken publicly for the first time. They say that they feel completely let down by the Government.
In the 1990's, Hickey was charged with 386 counts of sexual abuse involving 21 pupils of Dunderrow National School. The former school principal pleaded guilty to 21 sample charges and was sentenced to three years in jail in 1998.
In 2017, O'Keefe won a case in the European Court of Human Rights against Ireland, as they failed to protect her from the sexual abuse she suffered in school. When the case was brought to Europe after the Supreme Court ruled the State could not be responsible as the national school was an independent board at the time.
O'Keefe criticised the government for not taking repsonsibility of implementing the European Court of Human Rights findings for her classmates. She said that State has "known since 1998 from the criminal case, that I was not the only girl who was abused in the school. So, why aren't they prepared to offer those women a redress scheme, it is so, so wrong."
Today a group of women, ranging between 61-75 years-old say they may have to sue the State to access redress for abuse they suffered when they were children.
One of the victims told The Journal that they don't want to wait on another report. "The abuse happened when I was seven-and-a-half years old, and continued for a number of years. He pleaded guilty, and he was found guilty. He served far too short of a sentence, in my opinion. Why do we need another government group to look at this again? What new evidence are they going to find?" she said.
In April, the solicitor representing the group of vitcims wrote a letter to Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton. The letter said that the government has settled “at least 40 legal actions taken by survivors as it is unable to defend its position in the Irish courts”.
The letter firmly stated that Ireland is “re-traumatising” the victims by forcing them to engage in unnecessary litigation.
According to RTE, Minister Naughton stated that she did not accept "any suggestion" failed to implement the European Court of Human Rights in O'Keefe's case. "... and I equally cannot accept that the almost €14m paid to those who discontinued relevant litigation is not fair and equal in giving effect to the important judgment obtained by Louise O’Keeffe from the European Court of Human Rights," Naughton said.
