Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
# Courts
€400,000 in damages for woman abused by dancing teacher
Landmark ruling makes it first case to succeed on grounds of post-traumatic stress disorder.
THE HIGH COURT has awarded €400,000 in damages to a woman who was sexually abused for seven years in the 1980s by her Irish dancing instructor.
The woman, now aged 41, took a civil case against the instructor who denied the allegations, RTÉ News reported.
The abuse took place between 1982 and 1989, then the woman was between the ages of 12 and 19.
Defence lawyers had argued that the action should not have been permitted because of the delay in bringing the proceedings, but the High Court ruled that the case should be permitted and found that the woman had suffered psychological injury as a result of the abuse.
RTÉ said the case was the first in which a case has successfully been brought on the basis of severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
The names of the two parties involved have not been released as yet.
