This article is from page 13 of the 2009-11-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A SCHOOL principal arrived at work in Ennis to find what she thought was a dead woman lying in a foetal position at the entrance to one of the prefabs.
The dramatic evidence was heard at Ennis District Court yesterday, which was told that the young wom- an was naked from the waist down, was semi-conscious and was cov- ered in flour, while a classroom had been thrashed.
The 18-year-old woman, from En- nis, remembered very little about what had happened, having drank vodka that night. Her solicitor said yesterday she could have died from hypothermia.
Arising out of the incident, she was charged with burglary, but after hearing the evidence, Judge Aeneas McCarthy dismissed the charge.
The acting principal of Clough- leigh National School, Fiona Power, told the court that she arrived at school shortly before 8.30am on No- vember 28, 2008 – the morning after what she described as the coldest night of the year.
She said she noticed that the door of one of the prefabs was opened and she saw “what looked like a bundle of clothing lying on the floor. As I got closer I realised it was a person lying on the ground. I was afraid first of all that she was dead.”
She said she touched the woman and when she heard her mutter, she realised that she was alive.
“She was only partially clothed. She was lying on the bare concrete and a mixture of flour and liquid was emptied all over the floor. She looked as if she had been rolling on the floor. Her hair was matted,” she said. There were a couple of bottles
in the vicinity, including a vodka bottle, she said.
“It was a freezing cold morning,” she said. Ms Power and another teacher brought the young woman inside and tried to warm her. She was taken by ambulance to hospital.
Ms Power said the room had been thrashed, there was writing all over the walls and tables and the “floor was an absolute disgrace. Books had been thrown all over the place and filing cabinets had been opened.” She said the prefab had been locked the previous evening.
Under cross-examination by de- fence solicitor Tara Godfrey, Ms Power said that the young woman was drenched to the skin and was not wearing any clothes from the waist down. “Her feet were on the jamb of the doors,” she said.
Garda Jason Lardner recalled be- ing called to the school that morn-
ing. He said he tried to speak to her, but she was unresponsive and ap- peared semi-conscious.
‘Her eyes were open but she was unable to speak to me. There was flour on her face and black marker on her forehead,’ he said.
He explained that the door to the prefab had been forced open. Tables and chairs were thrown all over the place, while writing on the walls had sexual references. He said the wom- an told gardai she had been drinking the day before. She went to an apart- ment on the Mill Road at around midnight and had vodka, but did not remember much after that, until she woke up in hospital.
Ms Godfrey asked the garda, “Am I the only one concerned about her … naked from the waist down and with sexual references on the wall?” Garda Lardner replied, “My imme- diate concern was for her safety that
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Ms Godfrey submitted to the court, ‘In the case of burglary against my client, the threshold hasn’t been reached.”
She said the accused could have died from hypothermia that night, given the cold.
“There’s an awful lot more doubt and fear in my mind that something else could have happened,” she said.
Judge Aeneas McCarthy said, “I have serious concerns about what happened this girl. She was cov- ered in flour and was naked from the waist down and there was graf- fit: with sexual connotations on the walls.”
He said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt and dismissed the charge.
‘Her semi-conscious state that morning also causes me concern,” he said.