Garda told supervisor she did not have skills to forge letter

The supervisor of a garda accused of forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions has told her trial she told him she didn't have the necessary skills to forge a letter.

Det Insp Frank Keenaghan told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he showed her the letter and "told her to go away and think about it for an hour".

“She was adamant and said ‘I couldn’t have forged it’, to which I said I wasn’t accusing her of forging anything.”

Det Garda Catherine McGowan (48), who is based at Bray Garda station, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15th, 2009 at Bray Garda station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda station and at Harcourt Street Garda station between June 21st and 22nd, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), dated January 14th, 2009.

The investigation of Garda McGowan’s handling of the case was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report which investigated clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area. The priest in Garda McGowan’s case was one of the clerics mentioned in the report

The letter read: “Dear Sir, I (illegible) to yours. In (illegible) the statement of the complainant...could not possibly form the basis of a prosecution given that the complainant’s allegation of rape is only conjecture.”

Det Insp Keenaghan told Alex Owens SC, prosecuting, that Supt Tom Conway informed him of the letter on April 6th, 2011. He then called Garda McGowan into his office and asked her what she knew about it.

He told counsel Garda McGowan said the letter was a copy of what she had received from the DPP and she had delivered a copy of it to the Murphy Tribunal herself.

Det Insp Keenaghan said he asked Garda McGowan to think about it, “because on the face of it, we were misleading the Murphy Tribunal, and this was now the time to talk about it and put things right”.

The trial, which is scheduled to last another week, continues before Judge Mary Ellen Ring and a jury of six men and six women.