Mayo woman at centre of Rostrevor abuse scandal

Hollymount native Therese Lipsett

Mayo woman at centre of Rostrevor abuse scandal


Edwin McGreal

Therese Lipsett, the woman at the centre of the Rostrevor nursing-home abuse scandal, is from Co Mayo. Mrs Lipsett, a well-known socialite in Dublin, is a native of the Annefield area in Hollymount, south Mayo. She has lived in Dublin since qualifying as a nurse in 1974.
The Rostrevor Nursing Home, set up by Lipsett in 1984, is at the centre of a series of allegation of abuse, many of which emerged last week.
It was alleged that Lipsett covered up a series of sex attacks on an elderly woman in her care. Despite being warned by members of staff that one of her nurses was attacking the vulnerable woman, Lipsett did not call the Gardaí, the HSE or any other authorities. Instead, she allowed the abusing nurse – Stuart William Cummings – to continue working unsupervised and, when Cummins was later fired from Rostrevor, Lipsett gave him fake references for jobs at a hospital and a nursing agency, thereby exposing other vulnerable older people to similar attacks.
These revelations come at the end of a week in which the nursing home, located in the affluent Dublin suburb of Rathgar, was shut down by health watchdogs after separate allegations of physical abuse against patients by a different staff member. The Lipsett family have insisted that these allegations are false.
The nursing home is now in the control of Sarah Lipsett, Therese Lipsett’s daughter. Lipsett herself was struck off the Register of Nurses last December after the Irish Nursing Board (An Bord Altranais) found she had allowed Stuart William Cummings to keep working with patients for months after she became aware of the sexual assaults involving Cummings.
Details of this case were not released by the nursing board until April, yet the nursing home was not named and Lipsett was referred to as Ann Therese Connolly, her maiden name.
Following claims of assaults against patients in May, a series of inspections were undertaken. On May 27, the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) informed the Gardaí of their concerns, and the next day, three staff members gave accounts of what they witnessed in Rostrevor.
There was enough substance to what they said to prompt the HIQA to seek an immediate seizure of control of the home for the safety of the patients.
The matter is due back in court this week.