‘Doused with chemicals for my Air Corps initiation’

A MAN who claims he was doused with chemicals while tied to a stretcher in an ‘initiation rite’ for the Air Corps has sued the Minister of Defence for damages.

The Court of Appeal noted that aircraft mechanic Gavin Tobin has taken a personal injuries action, claiming that he had been exposed to toxic chemicals.

Judge Gerard Hogan said Mr Tobin claimed this had occurred during the initiation rite known as ‘tubbing’.

‘This involved his entire body being doused with chemicals by other Air Corps personnel while he was tied to a stretcher,’ the judge said.

This was said to have occurred at the Light Strike Squadron, Judge Hogan added.

Mr Tobin also claimed he had been exposed to inhaling toxic chemical fumes in the course of his work at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, Co. Dublin. He claimed that the Minister for Defence was guilty of negligence regarding his system of work.

Mr Tobin alleged he had not been provided with appropriate training or equipment, that the Minister failed to identify that the chemicals he was working with were dangerous, and that he was provided with ineffective gloves and poor ventilation. Judge Hogan added that Mr Tobin had finished his training at the Aer Corps Apprentice School in July 1991, and was then assigned to the Engine Flight Repair Workshop at Casement. Mr Tobin’s claim related to the time he served there between January 1989 and September 1999.

Judge Hogan said the plaintiff had not claimed that he had suffered catastrophic injuries, but that his symptoms did affect his capacity to work. These included acute anxiety, depression, a general feeling of unwellness and random severe pain.

The High Court heard previously that Mr Tobin has received the medical opinion of a toxico-pathologist who stated that his various medical complaints and organic encephalopathy – or brain disorders – were as a direct result of chemicals he used while working at the Air Corps headquarters at Casement Aerodrome.

Mr Tobin has also been told that these exposures also put him at a greater risk of Alzheimer’s and a variety of cancers.

The judge said the case could be regarded as a routine personal injuries case of moderate severity, ‘albeit one with some unusual features’.

But he said it came before the Court of Appeal with regard to a dispute over the number of documents Mr Tobin was seeking from the Minister for Defence.

‘The Minister is faced with making discovery which will take 200 man hours to accomplish, and which will require his personnel to seek out documents held in storage in a variety of different locations for well nigh 30 years,’ Judge Hogan said.

He said this demonstrated that there was ‘something seriously amiss with the discovery system as it currently operates’.

In October 2016, the High Court granted Mr Tobin an order that he should be given a full list of the chemicals he was asked to use during his time in the Air Corps, so he could take his case.

Judge Hogan said Mr Tobin was entitled to details of any previous ‘tubbing’ incidents. He explained: ‘If there were other such incidents, and the Minister either knew or turned a blind eye to this practice – if practice it was – it would certainly tend to corroborate the plaintiff’s account, and undermine the Minister’s defence of this part of the action.’

‘Put at greater risk of Alzheimer’s’