Europe court finds Ireland liable for sexual abuse in Catholic school

Google – AFP, 28 Janaury 2014

Leinster House which houses the Seanad chamber, or upper house of the

 Irish parliament, is pictured in Dublin on October 2, 2013 (AFP/File, Peter Muhly)

Strasbourg — The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday found Ireland liable for sexual abuse suffered by a girl at a Catholic-run state primary school in the 1970s.

"The Court found that it was an inherent obligation of a Government to protect children from ill-treatment, especially in a primary education context," the court said in its ruling of a case brought by a woman who had been sexually abused by the principal of her school in 1973.

"That obligation had not been met," it said.