Jail term for Áras Attracta nurse

APPEAL Pat McLoughlin, seen here at a previous sitting of the District Court in Ballina, has lodged an appeal against his conviction, and he was granted bail on his own bond. Pic: Keith Heneghan/Phocus

Judge says nurse manager guilty of ‘abuse of trust’

Edwin McGreal

The actions of a nurse who assaulted a resident with a severe intellectual disability at the Áras Attracta care facility were ‘an abuse of the trust’ that society had placed in him.
Judge Mary Devins made these comments yesterday (Monday), when she found Pat McLoughlin (57) of Lalibela, Mayfield, Claremorris, guilty of assaulting a resident at the care facility for people with intellectual disabilities.
Judge Devins said a prison sentence was ‘warranted’, and she sentenced McLoughlin to four months in jail. An appeal was lodged, and he was granted bail on his own bond.
Mr McLoughlin had pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting a resident at the facility in November 2014. In his trial last month, footage was shown in which McLoughlin could be seen running across a room towards the resident’s chair and then sitting on her after she got to the chair first.
McLoughlin was the Clinical Nurse Manager with responsibility for Bungalow Three, where the offence took place, and Bungalow Four.
In giving her decision, Judge Mary Devins said the while both aggravating and mitigating factors existed, the aggravating ‘far outweighed’ the mitigating.
The aggravating factors included Mr McLoughlin’s seniority among the staff, which also meant his behavior set an example to other staff at the facility. Judge Devins observed that another staff member committed a very similar offence the next day.
She added there was ‘a hint of cruelty’ in McLoughlin’s actions and that his behaviour was ‘an abuse of power’.  
She said the fact that other staff members were present and witnessed it ‘made his actions even more degrading’.
She described his evidence, in which he had said that his actions were taken so that Miss could avoid being reprimanded by other staff afterwards, as ‘self-serving’.
“His actions were an abuse of the trust that not only Miss A and her family had in him but an abuse of the trust society put in him,” she added.
Judge Devins said in her ruling that what Mr McLoughlin did by sitting on Miss A would not be an assault where there was consent between adults but argued there were distinguishing factors here, which included the absence of consent; inequalities in their respective positions at the facility; an ‘immense disparity in the mental capacities’ of both parties; and physical and gender differences.
She said what may be considered acceptable in the outside world is not the same in Áras Attracta.
She added that McLoughlin’s assertion that what he did was ‘a playful interaction’ was ‘not convincing’.
Judge Devins said McLoughlin’s ‘teasing, playful behaviour’ in this instance ‘came close to cruelty’ and that his actions amounted to ‘an offensive, degrading invasion of Miss A’s bodily integrity’.
Judge Devins added that McLoughlin’s actions had ‘dehumanised’ Miss A, and she ordered that he pay €1,000 towards activities that Miss A likes and which would help to humanise her again.
Mr McLoughlin broke down after the prison sentence was handed down.
Gearoid Geraghty, solicitor for McLoughlin, applied for recognances to be fixed for an appeal against the sentence. Judge Devins granted the request.
Mr Geraghty told the court that McLoughlin is a married father of three children. He was born in England to parents from the Claremorris area and the family moved home in 1971. McLoughlin had been working with people with mental disabilities since 1985.