Trial of garda for harassing solicitor told of ‘wild’ phone accusations

The trial of a detective for allegedly harassing a State solicitor has heard that a man who admitted ringing the solicitor’s personal mobile is the subject of three garda investigations.

Eve Doherty (49), a detective sergeant based in Dublin, denies harassing Elizabeth Howlin between September 2011 and March 2013 and making false statements on two dates in March 2013 claiming Ms Howlin was perverting the course of justice.

At the time Ms Howlin worked with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) where she was involved in deciding whether or not to direct prosecutions in criminal cases. Over an 18 month period letters and emails were sent to Ms Howlin’s home, her place of work and to her GP calling her a “corrupt bitch” and an “incompetent useless hobbit”.

The material, which included A4 posters left around her housing estate, falsely claimed that Ms Howlin was a political appointee and that she would “pull” files to prevent the prosecution of anyone connected to her or the government. Ms Howlin is a distant cousin of the TD Brendan Howlin.

Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, told the jury that Ms Doherty denies being the author of any of the letters and emails. He said the allegations contained in them were hideous and defamatory.

Facebook posts

On day 12 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Mr O’Higgins asked Suzanne Lindsay, a civilian member of the Garda, about posts on Facebook by a man named as Paddy Rochford.

The post began: “Today I was supplied with details about the corrupt Howlin family”.

Ms Lindsay testified on Tuesday that she identified 60 literary features which appeared in at least one of the documents linked to Ms Howlin and in at least one of the “suspect documents” linked to the defendant.

Mr O’Higgins asked the witness to identify similar features in the Facebook posting, including the omission of the final full stop in an acronym. He said there were five examples of this in the Facebook posting where the author wrote “D.P.P”.

The jury heard that the three postings were dated from between August and October 2015.

On Tuesday Mr O’Higgins asked Chief Supt John O’Driscoll about another social media posting under the name “Paddy Rochford” in which the man claimed to have called Ms Howlin on her private number in December 2015.

‘Wild accusations’

Ms Howlin has given evidence of receiving a call from a man making “wild accusations”.

Mr O’Higgins said this man had called Ms Howlin and made a number of internet posts which mirror the allegations in this case and that he had not been interviewed in relation to these offences.

Chief Supt O’Driscoll told counsel that the author of the posts was the subject of three ongoing criminal investigations.

Mr O’Higgins also asked Ms Lindsay about two typed letters found in Ms Doherty’s workplace in the Special Detective Unit, based on Harcourt Street.

Ms Lindsay agreed with Mr O’Higgins that both these typed letters came in envelopes which were addressed to “Sgt Doherty.”

The first letter began: “well smart bitch, still going through hell. I hope you are & don’t think it’s over yet....I heard your case isn’t fully over yet ha ha ha....We’re all glad you’re out of S&I”.

Mr O’Higgins said S&I stood for Security & Intelligence.

The trial continues.