IRELAND
Breaking News
25/02/2015
An officer of the Director of Public Prosecutions has told the trial of a detective charged with forging a DPP letter that there was no file for a priest the detective was investigating for child abuse.
Wicklow detective Garda Catherine McGowan (aged 48), who is based at Bray Garda Station, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 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 21 and 22, 2011.
The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), dated January 14, 2009.
On day three of the trial, Henry Matthews, a professional officer in the DPP’s office, told the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that his job was to assess garda investigation files and make decisions on whether or not to prosecute the cases.
He told Alex Owens SC, prosecuting, that in 2011 he was asked to check his office filing systems for a file for a priest who Gda McGowan was investigating from 2007 after a Wicklow woman made an allegation of sexual assault against him.
The 2011 investigation of Gda McGowan’s handling of this allegation was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report which investigated clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area.
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