A widow yesterday told Dublin Circuit Civil Court she was "stunned" by an incident at a holy water font in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.
Mrs Sheila Brennan (73), of St Brigid's Avenue, Dublin, said she saw a hand go into her shopping bag and remove a jumper she had just bought at Dunne's Stores in nearby North Earl Street.
She told Judge Liam Devally she had turned around and saw a security guard from the store. He said: "Oh, a receipt."
Mrs Brennan, who is suing the store for £30,000 for alleged defamation of character, told her barrister, Mr John Fox, she had never been so humiliated in her life. Many people were passing in and out of the cathedral.
She saw the security man join a garda at the cathedral steps and when she asked, "What was all that about?" the security man told her he had seen somebody following her.
She told the judge she went into the cathedral after the incident to pray but was too upset. "I kept saying, `What am I doing here? I shouldn't be here', and left," she said.
Mrs Brennan said she had been very upset at the time and had experienced upset many times since the April 1998 incident.
Mr Eamon Marray, for Dunnes Stores, said Mrs Brennan's claim would be vigorously disputed.
When Mr Marray objected to the submission of written medical reports on Mrs Brennan from her GP and from a psychiatrist when they were not in court to face cross-examination, Judge Devally adjourned the case to allow both medical experts to attend.