Patricia McClarnon v The Sisters of Nazareth and Lindsay O'Neill as Personal Representative of the Estate of John McGuinness, (Decased) v The Sisters of Nazareth
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Mr Simpson KC sitting as HCJ |
| Judgment Date | 19 January 2024 |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] NIKB 3 |
| Date | 19 January 2024 |
| Court | King's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
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Neutral Citation No: [2024] NIKB 3
Judgment: approved by the court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)*
Ref: SIM12389
ICOS No: 11/143388
11/143394
Delivered: 19/01/2024
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
___________
KING’S BENCH DIVISION
___________
Between:
PATRICIA McCLARNON
Plaintiff
-and-
THE SISTERS OF NAZARETH
Defendants
____________
Between:
LINDSAY O’NEILL AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE
OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN MCGUINNESS, (DECEASED)
Plaintiff
-and-
THE SISTERS OF NAZARETH
Defendants
___________
David Ringland KC with Malachy McGowan (instructed by Phoenix Law, Solicitors) for
the Plaintiffs
Bernard Brady KC with Gareth Purvis (instructed by DAC Beachcroft (N. Ireland) LLP
Solicitors) for the Defendants
___________
SIMPSON J
Introduction
[1] These cases, each raising issues of historical institutional abuse, were listed
together, and it was convenient to hear them both together. Both plaintiffs were
represented by the same solicitors and counsel, as were the defendants in each case.
Each plaintiff was for a period in the 1970s, while a child, a resident in care in
Nazareth Lodge on the Ravenhill Road in Belfast. Both Nazareth Lodge and
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Nazareth House, a separate home further along the Ravenhill Road, were run by the
defendants who were responsible for the care of children placed in either premises.
[2] Each plaintiff makes allegations of abuse by personnel working in the homes.
Each plaintiff’s allegations are different, and I will elaborate further on those
allegations when dealing individually with each plaintiff’s case.
[3] In both actions the defendants plead the provisions of the Limitation
(Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (“the 1989 Order”), contending that both actions are
statute barred. For the reasons appearing below, the first issue between the parties
to be dealt with is whether or not the court should exercise its discretion under the
1989 Order to allow the actions to proceed.
Patricia McClarnon’s case
[4] Ms McClarnon was born on 29 August 1964. She is now 59. The Statement of
Claim asserts that she was in the defendants’ care at Nazareth Lodge between
“approximately 1971 and 1976/1977”, a period of some 5 or 6 years. The plaintiff
relies on the following causes of action: viz, negligence, assault, battery and trespass
to the person. She alleges beatings, on the hand and body, threats, forcing her to
bathe in barely diluted liquid disinfectant, repeatedly and aggressively scrubbing
her body, rubbing soiled bed-linen in her face, rubbing her face in a soiled mattress
and forcing her to remain alone inside an unlit storeroom. She also alleges that she
was regularly humiliated in front of other residents for having soiled her bed or
underwear.
[5] She says that if presents, of toys or food, were given for her benefit, they
would never be passed on to her by the staff. At Christmas parties, when presents
were given to the children, they were taken away from them after the party was over
and any visitor had left.
[6] She specifically identified (i) Brigid Hillman (a lay member of staff) as a
person who repeatedly beat her, sometime for no apparent reason, who repeatedly
placed her in a bath of overly hot water or cold water and who humiliated her if she
wet the bed; (ii); the notorious priest, Father Brendan Smyth, who, she says, sat her
on his knee and bounced her up and down [in her pleadings she alleges sexual
assault against him, which I deal with later in this judgment]; and (iii) a Terry
McAuley as a person who beat her now and again. Although the pleadings
identified another man as someone who beat her, in her oral evidence she was
unable to remember any physical abuse from this person, and I shall not name him
in this judgment.
[7] She told me that she frequently wet the bed, and this would lead to the
humiliation in front of others, referred to above, and to her face being rubbed in the
wet sheets by Brigid Hillman. She said that Brigid Hillman would beat her every
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day, depending on what mood she was in, and sometimes she was beaten with a
stick. She said she was used to being beaten and it made her cry.
[8] She also told me that the food was terrible, and if she did not eat what was
presented to her, it would be re-presented to her the following day. The children
were told not to say anything to anyone about what was happening and anyway, as
she said to me, “Who was going to believe me if I told?”
[9] She told me that the whole experience has left her “completely drained” and
that she thinks about it on a daily basis. In cross-examination she said, “It’s a thing
you want to forget about and not talk about”.
[10] Part of the plaintiff’s case is that there was a wholesale failure by the
defendants to have in place appropriate systems, while acting in loco parentis, to
ensure that the children were safe and not subjected to the abuses alleged.
John McGuinness’s case
[11] Mr McGuinness was born on 17 April 1961. The Statement of Claim in his
case asserts that he was in the defendants’ care from age seven for about two years,
before he was moved to Bawnmore, another such institutional establishment. Sadly,
Mr McGuinness died in August 2020, and the case now continues in the name of his
personal representative.
[12] He also relies on negligence, assault, battery and trespass to the person. The
particulars in the Statement of Claim allege beatings, including beatings with a
wooden clog, threats, a rape, and forcing him to perform fellatio. In addition, the
allegations include repeated warnings of further beatings if he told his mother or
anyone else about the treatment meted out to him.
[13] Although he alleges assault at the hands of a number of nuns, he specifically
identifies a Sister Teresa Murphy as someone who beat him, usually by striking him
with her knuckles. He also states that he was regularly sexually assaulted in toilets
near the back steps of the home by a handyman or janitor, named Francis, who
worked at the premises. It was this person whom he alleges committed rape on him,
on one occasion, at the same location, and who forced him to perform fellatio, again
on one occasion and at the same location.
The defendants’ defences
[14] The defence served in each case admits that each plaintiff was a resident in
the home — Ms McClarnon from 10 November 1971; Mr McGuinness from 22 April
1970 to 15 December 1972, when he was discharged to another care establishment.
In the McGuinness case the defendants assert that “the form of corporal punishment
by its servants and agents at the time alleged was appropriate and commensurate to
the accepted educational practices.” The defence served in each case denies the
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