The High Court has ruled that a man who repeatedly raped his foster daughter over seven years must pay her €328,000 in damages.
Stephen Murray, of Humphreystown, Valleymount in Co Wicklow, was jailed for 11 years in May 2022 for raping Kelly Kemmy three or four times a week when she was aged between 11 and 18 years old.
Ms Kemmy waived her right to anonymity after his sentencing and described how he had raped her around 1,000 times and had turned her life into a living nightmare.
Ms Justice Emily Egan ruled that what Ms Kemmy had to endure as a vulnerable child at Murray's hands was "nothing less than an obscenity".
She said the severity of the abuse and its consequences meant a very substantial award of general damages, which she said must exceed awards made in previous child sexual abuse cases.
Murray pleaded guilty to 14 charges of rape, two charges of oral rape and one charge of sexual assault on dates between February 2009 and December 2015.
His pleas were acceptable to the DPP on the basis that they were sample charges.
In 2023, Ms Kemmy settled her High Court claim for damages against the Child and Family Agency, Tusla for €250,000.
That settlement was taken into account in the award against her foster father.
Ms Justice Egan said Ms Kemmy was taken into care by Tusla when she was around four years old and was placed in the care of Murray and his wife, along with two other siblings.
The court heard Murray repeatedly threatened her that if she revealed the abuse, she and her siblings would lose their home and would be split up.
In her ruling on the amount of damages to be paid by Murray, Ms Justice Egan said Ms Kemmy had described a horrific cycle of escalating abuse commencing when she was only eleven years of age.
Although her early years with the Murrays were reasonably good, it became apparent that Murray had a serious behavioural issue.
He was a heavy drinker and became aggressive when drunk.
In her judgment, the judge outlined how Murray told Ms Kemmy the abuse was "normal", and that if she ever told anyone it would ruin the family.
The rapes went on five or six times a week for seven years.
If Ms Kemmy denied Murray sex or pleaded with him to stop, he would punish her with silence for days.
Ms Kemmy knew speaking the truth would mean ruining the lives of her siblings, the judge said, and she wanted to protect them.
As she got older, she knew something was very wrong but felt trapped, helpless and frightened.
Judge Egan said she trusted no one and had no safe place.
Murray frequently threatened her with the breakup of her family if she did not submit to the abuse or if she told anyone.
In her teenage years, Ms Kemmy had suicidal thoughts and did not want to exist because she was so numb, ashamed and embarrassed.
The rapes stopped when Ms Kemmy turned eighteen and started seeing a boy her own age.
Murray was jealous towards her boyfriend and hostile towards him, culminating in a violent incident at the house.
Social workers arranged a family therapy session at which it was agreed Murray would cut down on his drinking and Ms Kemmy and her siblings would try not to trigger his anger.
Ms Kemmy said there was no follow-up after this.
She reported the rapes in 2019 after receiving text messages from Murray and becoming terrified that he would try to rape her again.
She said that after she reported the rapes to gardaí, she lost the only home and the only family she had and she and her siblings were split up.
She was given no help in finding housing or meeting expenses and was given a home by a neighbour.
Judge Egan described how the abuse had torn Ms Kemmy to pieces, psychologically and emotionally, leaving her with shame, guilt, anxiety, depression and a complete lack of self-worth.
Her relationship with her siblings had been devastated, the judge said.
Her aim was to keep the family together and she felt the lives of her siblings were destroyed by the fact that they lost their home.
The judge said Ms Kemmy felt everything she had dreaded and tried to prevent had come to pass.
Ms Justice Egan said however, that Ms Kemmy was clearly a resourceful and intelligent woman who was very keen to gain security for herself and her young child.
She wanted to study to become a social worker, to help other children, but had faced obstacles as she has to support her daughter and needs to work to pay crèche fees.
The court heard evidence from psychologist, Dr Catherine Norton, who said Ms Kemmy was still extremely traumatised and needed assistance to process the trauma and grieve the loss of her childhood.
Judge Egan found that personal injuries guidelines in relation to awards of damages did not apply to cases such as this where damages are claimed for rape or sexual assault.
The judge said Ms Kemmy was subjected to the cruelty of hundreds of acts of rape throughout her adolescence and what she had endured was "an obscenity".
She said Murray had committed an "egregious breach of trust".
He had also manipulated the dynamics between Ms Kemmy and her siblings, leaving her isolated during her childhood years.
This also meant, the judge said, that when she reported the abuse she was separated from her siblings and made homeless.
Judge Egan said her relationship with her siblings and the guilt she felt towards them would probably never be resolved.
The judge said Ms Kemmy had, through her strength, bravery and determination, "somehow kept her life, if not on track, at least near to the tracks".
But she said were it not for the sexual abuse, she would in all likelihood have a thriving career, a relationship with her siblings and would have gained many of the milestones that make up a happy, healthy life.
The judge said she would require extensive and traumatic therapy to make a real recovery.
The judge awarded Ms Kemmy a total of €578,000; however, she reduced it by €250,000 to take into account the award previously made by Tusla.
This is because she found that under the law Tusla and Murray were "concurrent wrongdoers" and were both responsible for damage inflicted on Ms Kemmy.
