A FEMALE garda who made a false complaint to colleagues that she had been attacked in a taxi by the driver and two other men has had her sentencing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court adjourned until next month.
Niamh O’Connor (25), originally from Wexford and serving in Bray, Co Wicklow, at the time of the offence, had previously been disciplined by the Garda in early 2007 for dialling 999 and falsely claiming she had been beaten up after locking herself out of her home.
O’Connor, with addresses at Grange Lower, Rathnure, Enniscorthy, and College Park Avenue, Ballinteer, had been a garda for three and a half years and was suspended from duty earlier this year.
O’Connor pleaded guilty to making a false statement at Donnybrook Garda station on December 28th, 2007, intending to show that an offence had been committed. The maximum penalty is five years’ imprisonment.
Judge Katherine Delahunt adjourned sentencing until early July.
Sgt Ronan Muldoon told Sean Guerin, prosecuting, that O’Connor hailed a taxi alone after leaving friends in a nightclub on Harcourt Street at about 3am.
She rang Bray Garda station at 4am in a distressed state and when gardaí went to her Dublin address she alleged that while on her way home she had been attacked in a taxi in Herbert Park by three men.
O’Connor showed them a pair of torn tights and a torn dress. She insisted on accompanying the gardaí to Kevin Street Garda station but once there said she did not wish make a statement and just wanted people to “be aware”.
When O’Connor was contacted the following day by gardaí from Donnybrook she told them she wished to “forget about it” but later agreed to make a statement.
Sgt Muldoon said O’Connor made a detailed four-page statement describing how she had hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take her to Dundrum.
The driver asked her if it was all right if he dropped a passenger in Rathmines first, she said.
She said she fell asleep and when she awoke, the car was stopped and the male passenger was still in the front. O’Connor said a third man climbed out of the car boot and she was attacked but fought her way out of the car.
Sgt Muldoon said it was explained to O’Connor that if there was a prosecution there would have to be full disclosure of her previous false complaint and at this point she admitted the story was false.
O’Connor told gardaí the taxi driver “threw her a dirty look” after braking suddenly and she wanted to “pay him back”.
She told them: “When I have a lot of drinks something inside me snaps” and said the situation had “snowballed out of control and I could not stop it”.
Sgt Muldoon said O’Connor told gardaí that she “had not been mentally right since the firemen were burned in Bray”. O’Connor had attended the scene after two firemen were killed in a fire in Bray in September 2007.
Sgt Muldoon said Garda disciplinary proceedings had been adjourned until after sentencing and agreed the proceedings could lead to her dismissal.
Remy Farrell defending said O’Connor, a member of a Wexford All-Ireland winning camogie team, had been “burning the candle at both ends” through work and outside interests such as sport and charity work. He said she had already been punished to a significant degree by the “loss of her career and regard”.