Rebecca McKeown Doctor Admits Withholding Details

The doctor who examined a disabled girl days before she died following an alleged sexual assault has admitted she may have withheld details of a medical examination to protect her reputation.

Rebecca McKeown’s grandparents are on trial accused of her 2001 manslaughter.

Dr Mary Donnelly admitted in court that for 11 years, she had failed to report full details of the intimate exam.

She said two of her fingers had “unintentionally” slipped inside the teenager’s vagina.

The 14 year old died in hospital in March 2001, five days after she had been looked after by her grandparents.

Rebecca, who was severely disabled, could not walk, talk or feed herself and needed 24-hour care.

She died after contracting pneumonia which, according to the prosecution, came as a direct result of a sexual assault she suffered at the hands of one or other grandparent.

David and Sarah Johnston, from Carwood Drive in Glengormley, deny the charges.

Nervous

Dr Donnelly, who was working as an out-of-hours locum GP at the time, was called to examine Rebecca on 19 March 2001 after the teenager started bleeding from her vagina.

Under cross examination at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday, the doctor admitted that she did not reveal full details of what happened during the medical exam either to the police investigation or to a medical review of the treatment Rebecca had received.

Defence QC Gavan Duffy told Dr Donnelly that she had not given “candid and clear and complete” answers to the medical review and he asked if she had failed to do in order to protect her own interests.

Dr Donnelly said: “It might have been, yes”, after she was urged to answer by the judge.

During her earlier evidece on Thursday, the doctor said the police came to her surgery to take a statement from her less than 24 hours after she had carried out the examination.

She said she felt it was “completely out of the ordinary” to make a statement without any notes available to her but said she “wasn’t given an option”.

She told Mr Duffy that she felt “nervous” about making the police statement but denied it was because she felt she had done something wrong.

Dr Donnelly said she had never given a statement to police before and added that it would be “quite intimidating for anyone”.

Mr Johnston, 88, and his 86-year-old wife, are accused of Rebecca’s manslaughter on 24 March 2001 and a further offence of child cruelty five days previously on 19 March.

The teenager was registered blind and suffered from a number of medical conditions including cerebral palsy, scoliosis of the spine, and severe epilepsy.