Girl (5) allegedly sexually assaulted by child in creche seeks to sue creche

Ann O'Loughlin

A five-year-old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a child of a similar age in a creche, is seeking to sue in the High Court, claiming the play equipment storage shed in which the incident allegedly happened was unsupervised.

The girl, now 8, who is seeking to sue through her adult "next friend", has been refused permission by the court to inspect what it is said is important evidence needed to take her case.

The inspection was sought so that the statement of claim for alleged negligence could be prepared.

The evidence she sought to inspect is the garden shed itself, any CCTV footage of the incident and accident/incident report forms, witness statements, and contemporaneous notes and records relating to the alleged incident.

It is claimed that the girl suffered both physical injuries and a considerable psychiatric injury as a result of the alleged sexual assault.

The intended defendant, creche has agreed to orders for preservation of evidence but opposed the inspection application.

In a ruling, Ms Justice Emily Egan said she was not satisfied that the relevance of any of the three categories of evidence had been adequately established at this stage of the proceedings.

"Nor am I satisfied that it has been demonstrated that the proposed inspection is necessary or expedient", she said.

She was also not satisfied that a Tusla report into the incident greatly assisted the plaintiff in this application.

Once the pleadings have been exchanged and, if the defendant disputes liability, it is likely that the evidence sought will be relevant to the matters in issue and that the inspection sought will be established as being necessary and expedient, the judge said.

She therefore concluded that the application for inspection was premature.

However, she said the present application can be renewed following the exchange of pleadings, and rather than dismiss the current application, she adjourned it with liberty to re-enter once pleadings are closed.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.