THE INTERIM Garda Ombudsman report into the Corrib tape controversy says that at no stage were either of the women involved threatened personally with being raped, deported or subject to “any other form of threat” by gardaí.
The women did not hear the conversation on the tape until after their release, when the camcorder was returned to them.
The subsequent controversy elicited widespread public comment, and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan issued an apology.
The interim report says that during the course of the subsequent investigation, one garda “may have overheard one of the females using the word ‘rape’ during the course of their arrest, and prior to the word being used by any Garda member”.
The detective said in a statement to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission: “As the prisoners were being brought to the cars to transport them to the station, one of them kept shouting something like “She is not safe on her own with ye” or “She is not safe with ye”, and I also heard her shout “She could be raped by ye”.
“I am not sure of the exact words used, and as I was walking back towards the minibus, I cannot say which protester said this,” his statement said. “Both of them were shouting. I did mention this to some of my colleagues after the controversial tapes were released to the media,” he stated.
The report says the arrests were video-recorded and the footage was reviewed in the light of this statement, but it was not possible to corroborate it as “high winds” distorted the sound.
The report says the transcript supports allegations that gardaí joked about “deporting them from Ireland , on enlisting the support of the Garda National Immigration Bureau to harass them and other comments of an inappropriate nature”.
On the recording, several gardaí are heard discussing the identity of two women from the Rossport Solidarity Camp who they had arrested on a public road near the Shell pipeline works at Aughoose.
When one garda said one of the women “sounds like a Yank or Canadian”, another garda said: “Well, whoever, we’ll get immigration f**king on her.” The two gardaí then joked about threatening to deport and rape the woman if she did not give her name and address.
One of the women, postgraduate student JerrieAnn Sullivan, agreed to be interviewed by the commission. The second woman did not co-operate. The report says her solicitor advised she was overseas and would not be returning for about a year.
A Shell to Sea statement last night said the woman in question “has in fact invested significant time and energy into preparing a detailed complaint, which reflects the seriousness of the incident. The deadline for submission of this complaint is September 2011.”
The report says the commission is investigating “aspects” of a separate complaint concerning conduct of gardaí which was lodged with it by one of the two women.