A retired company director has failed in an attempt to get out of paying €4.7 million damages to two women he raped as children.

Joseph Carrick (72) of Carysfort Woods, Blackrock, Co. Dublin claimed he did not have the mental capacity to defend the High Court jury actions last November that led to the awards.

He was ordered to pay a record €4 million to Jacqueline O'Toole by a jury who found he had raped and abused her in the early 1970s when they were in a choir together.

The abuse happened when she was 12 and 13 years of age, and resulted in her becoming pregnant.

Another jury awarded damages of €700,000 to Jacqueline’s cousin Geraldine Nolan for the systematic sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Carrick, who was described in court as an ‘evil paedophile that preyed on children’.

The 72-year-old did not defend either case. An order was made stopping Carrick, a retired company director of a successful shipping company, from reducing his assets.

However he subsequently applied to the High Court to have the damages awards set aside.

His lawyers argued that he had been incapable of defending the cases due to depression and a mild cognitive impairment.

Ms. Justice Elizabeth Dunne has refused to set aside the jury verdicts and direct new trials.

She has found Carrick’s failure to defend the two cases was more a sign of poor judgment than mental incapacity and notes that his decision not to attend court appears to have been deliberate.

She has also found that the court's authority to set aside verdicts is not meant to be used in such circumstances.

'This is not a case of inadvertence, mistake or surprise'.

In court Jacqueline O'Toole and Geraldine Nolan wept tears of relief. Afterwards they said they had hoped the damages awards last year would prove to be a new beginning for them. They said their lives have been put on hold because of 5 years of criminal and civil proceedings.

Joseph Carrick’s lawyers have indicated he will appeal today's decision to the Supreme Court.