Mater Hospital ordered to pay compensation to man suspected of sexual abuse based on skin colour
Seán McCárthaigh
A leading Dublin hospital has been ordered to pay €10,000 in compensation to a healthcare assistant who was suspended when he was identified as the subject of a complaint about the sexual abuse of a patient based solely on his skin colour.
The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that the Mater Misericordiae Hospital had discriminated against Paul Agbons on grounds of race in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998.
The WRC heard a patient at the hospital had made a complaint on June 2nd 2025 in which the individual concerned was described as “very talk, dark skin, shaved head, not Irish” and someone who was giving out teas and coffees and helping with patient care.
The patient claimed she had been interfered with in a sexual way on three different nights by the same individual who appeared to be working on night duty while in the hospital at the end of 2024.
Mr Agbons, who has worked in the Mater since 2001 on night shifts, claimed he was wrongly identified by the hospital four days later as the subject of the complaint and was accused of wrongdoing without any objective basis or justification.
He was subsequently suspended for six days.
Agbons said he was treated unfairly and targeted because of his race and nationality.
However, representatives of the Mater rejected the claim that it had discriminated against the HCA.
They claimed it had no option but to take the information provided by the patient who made a complaint and carry out an immediate investigation.
The hospital pointed out that the process of preliminary screening from receipt of a complaint to advising Mr Agbons that he had no case to answer was completed within a week.
It pointed out its obligations were governed by its Trust in Care policy which had the key objective of protecting vulnerable patients, while ensuring an investigation process was fair, objective and compliant with natural justice for accused staff members.
In her ruling, WRC adjudication officer, Penelope McGrath, said there was no doubt that a very unusual, sensitive and difficult situation had arisen.
McGrath said Agbons had struck her as being a good man who had worked hard and reared his family well.
She observed that the HCA, who comes originally from Nigeria but now has Irish citizenship, has an exemplary work record and seemed to be a trusted and valued member of staff.
The WRC official also acknowledged that the nature of the complaint would have had to “set off alarm bells.”
McGrath said it was frustrating that the only one of three individuals to respond to the hospital’s patient liaison manager about the screening process, a nurse manager, was not made available as a witness given her evidence was pivotal.
She said the nurse manager had the only evidence which might have displaced the inference that she had displayed a discriminatory motive or unconscious bias.
However, McGrath said the nurse manager’s screening process was quite limited given any number of staff might have had access to the patient’s room.
The WRC noted that she had only looked at staff rostered on the ward where the patient was staying and not on any of three other wards on the same floor.
McGrath said she was concerned that the nurse manager then overstepped what was being asked of her by going “into full accusatory mode” and identifying a prime suspect.
While the patient’s description of her alleged abuser might have captured Mr Agbons in some general way, she did not accept that it would not also fit with another dozen people in the Mater.
McGrath said there was a failure by the nurse manager “to cast the net wide” instead of zeroing in on the HCA as the only person fitting the description.
She also observed that no attempt had been made at that point in time to speak to female HCAs who had been providing 24/7 care to the patient.
McGrath said Agbons had been very clear that the nurse manager had informed him on June 6th, 2025 that an accusation had been levelled at him, even though the patient had made a complaint about an unknown individual.
She said it was a great pity that the nurse manager was allowed to suspend the HCA on pay without any objective oversight.
The WRC official said it was also surprising that the nurse manager was not impacted by the suggestion put to her by Mr Agbons’ son that there was some sort of racial bias at play.
Although the suspension had only lasted six days, Ms McGrath said its effect had been long lasting.
“The move to purportedly identify and then suspend someone primarily based on the colour of their skin has a clear racial overtone,” she added.
The WRC said the hospital’s management should have been hypersensitive to the optics of making a selection and at best the nurse manager had made up her mind “under the influence of an unconscious bias.”
“At worst, [she] landed on the complainant as a black person and wrongdoer,” said Ms McGrath.
Ordering the Mater to pay Agbons compensation of €10,000, McGrath said she was mindful that the suspension only lasted six days and the hospital had to balance two very difficult situations.
