By Diarmaid Fleming

BBC news



Police found wires in the house

Rita McKenna and her daughter, Edel, spied on their tenants in Glasnevin.

The students suspected they were being bugged when the landladies mentioned details of private conversations. But when they complained they were evicted.

Police, however, found the flats had been wired for secret video recording equipment. Damages up to 12,500 euro each were awarded for privacy breaches.

The students, from Armagh, Monaghan, Mayo, Galway and Donegal, rented a total of nine rooms at Mobhi Road in the upmarket Glasnevin suburb of Dublin during 2003 and 2004.

The students paid 80 euro a week for a shared room and 90 euro for a single room, and an extra five euro for a meter-operated television.

'Electronic surveillance'

They became concerned late in 2004 that their conversations and activities were being monitoring.

When they raised the issue, they were evicted within four hours and left outside with their belongings in binbags and boxes.

One student took legal action against the mother and daughter, which was settled out of court by the pair in 2004.

But engineering investigators and a garda officer sent to the house to search on foot of a court order related to that case, were locked out when they arrived, but saw people hurriedly moving inside the house with torchlights.

After the settlement, the students who had lodged with the McKennas instead lodged writs, suing for breach of privacy and damages in a court case heard this week in Dublin.

Judge Gerard Griffin told Dublin Circuit Court that the evidence in the case left him "in no doubt whatsoever that the defendants had kept these plaintiffs under electronic surveillance".

The judge said he could not say whether it was audio or video surveillance or both, but he was concerned that yellow wires found in the house were of the international standard used for video recording.

He said the tenants were "unceremoniously evicted" with less than four hours' notice and left to their own devices with their belongings in black bin bags and boxes.

Judge Griffin agreed their privacy had been infringed and awarded them damages of between 7,500 euro and 12,500 euro each.

Their evictions were also unlawful and had caused great distress to students living far from home with little money and facing exams, he said.

Dublin Institute of Technology Students' Union which backed the students when they were left out in the cold welcomed the verdict.

Union president Andy Doyle said: "We worked for the students the night they were evicted and provided them with support and gave evidence on their behalf.

"While this type of situation is rare, any students in difficulties like should get in touch for help and not feel alone."