Posted: October 15th, 2019
A €30,000 Giraffe Creche abuse compensation award has been been settled in favour of an eight-year-old boy who was filmed, when he was just a baby, ‘strapped into a chair for hours’ in an RTE news exposé that was covering the poor treatment of pre-school children.
Just two years old when he was recorded being restrained in the chair, the footage of Lucas Doyle allegedly being strapped into a chair for two hours at the Giraffe creche, Belarmine, Stepaside, Co Dublin was aired on the RTÉ news documentary programme ‘A Breach of Trust’.
The Giraffe creche in question was one of three creches chosen by the RTE PrimeTime Investigates broadcast team to be covered in an investigation in to the standard of care provided by pre-school services within the State during 2013. The High Court was told that, ten days before the RTE documentary was aired, the producer and cameraman of the programme went to the boy’s family home with footage due to be broadcast. They showed his parent the footage captured at the Belarmine creche which allegedly portrayed Lucas in a room where children were being tied into chairs and shouted at.
Lucas was cared for in the creche in Belarmine from August 2012 to May 2013, beginning when he was 11-and-a-half months’ old until he was a year and eight months old. Lucas, through his mother Aisling Emmet, took the Giraffe creche abuse compensation action against Giraffe Childcare Unlimited Company and its managing director Simon Dowling.
They claimed, as part of the legal action, that the footage showed that Lucas being allegedly tied into a chair for two hours on one day. Giraffe Childcare, through the court, informed the boy’s parents that new standards and safety measures had been put implemented following the incident recorded by RTÉ. However his parents had found an alternative childcare centre for Lucas, who was reported to have recovered well from any suffering he experienced.
The Giraffe creche abuse compensation settlement of €30,000 was approved by Mr Justice Garret Simons.
Categories: Child injury News
