After eight years, Scouting Ireland accepts liability after girl was swept out to sea and died

The Four Courts in Dublin city centre

SCOUTING IRELAND HAS been excoriated in and out of court for the manner in which they dealt with the death of a 14-year-old girl who was swept into the sea at Hook Island Lighthouse during a day trip eight years ago and died in hospital a few days afterwards.

Judge Christopher Callan was told in the Circuit Civil Court today that the scouting organisation had contested liability for eight years until last week in the case, brought by Anne Winterlich, mother of drowning victim Aoife.

Outside of court Ms Winterlich, of Walkinstown Road, Walkinstown, Dublin 12, asked in a statement how parents could now trust Scouting Ireland to take care for the safety of their children during scouting activities.

She said her beloved daughter “had her bright future snatched away” because of a “fatal decision by Scouting Ireland”.

The children had been left unsupervised, she said, “leading my precious daughter to being swept away by the turbulent waves”.

She said a request by the Coroner who dealt with Aoife’s inquest for Scouting Ireland Services to conduct an investigation and publish a report had been ignored by the organisation which had avoided issuing results of its report.

She said it was unacceptable that no mandatory investigation was conducted into the circumstances leading up to Aoife’s movements prior to her having been swept into the sea.

She added that Scouting Ireland had denied liability for eight years.

Finbarr Fox, SC, counsel for Aoife’s mother, the Winterlich family and Aoife, told the judge that while he could not criticise Scouting Ireland for accepting liability for the incident he was critical of the fact it had taken eight years for someone in Scouting Ireland to stand up and say: “We are not contesting this case.”

Fox, who appeared with barrister Michael Fox and Emer Lyons of Lyons Skelly Solicitors, told Judge Callan that the scouting organisation had made a settlement offer of €54,000 in the case and Aoife’s brothers, Craig, Martin and Jack had, to their great credit,  foregone any part of the settlement and wanted the money to go to their mother.

The settlement, which was approved by the court, includes the funeral and other costs surrounding the tragedy and damages for stress arising from the incident which Fox had stated was a clear case of negligence by Scouting Ireland in having allowed children to run around unsupervised in an area that had presented a clear hazard to them. He said there could be no question of contributory negligence.

Judge Callan said it had been extremely stressful for the family particularly relating to the management of the case by Scouting Ireland which had caused stress that should not have happened.

“I welcome the defendant’s acceptance of liability but it should not have taken so long,” Judge Callan said when approving the settlement offer. He said the death of Aoife’s father some weeks after the incident had been particularly stressful.

Two separate cases against the Commissioners of Irish Lights and Hook Heritage Company Limited were struck out on the strength of Scouting Ireland’s late acceptance of full blame for the incident.