A 21-year-old woman who fantasized about being a garda's wife and made false reports that he raped her has been released on bail under the supervision of the probation and welfare service after a court heard that the woman was schizophrenic.
Eleanor Kelleher, Aisling, Killard, Blarney, Co Cork - who pleaded guilty to making a false report of a crime about a member of An Garda Síochána - had been in custody for the past two months after Judge Seán Ó Donnabhain sought a full psychiatric report on her.
Yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Ó Donnabhain said that the only progress towards obtaining a fuller understanding of what had caused Kelleher to make the false reports was made after he had remanded her in custody to Limerick Prison.
"It's unfortunate that a girl so young had to go into custody to obtain these reports," said Judge Ó Donnabhain, who had earlier noted that Kelleher had made false reports about other people though they weren't as serious as those she had made about the garda.
"I am concerned that this isn't the first time that false complaints were made and there must be some risk of it happening in the future," said Judge Ó Donnabhain who noted that the psychiatric report recommended a therapeutic rather than a custodial course of action.
Judge Ó Donnabhain said he would release Kelleher on bail and place her under the supervision of the Probation and Welfare Service to obey their directions with regard to counselling and treatment and he adjourned the case to November 4th for sentence.
"The reports that are now available verify that you are a person in need of help rather than punishment," said Judge Ó Donnabhain, adding that Kelleher should be of good behaviour and that he intended dealing with the matter on a non-custodial basis in November.
Insp Denis O'Shea had told an earlier hearing of the case that the married family man - whom Judge Ó Donnabhain ordered not to be named - had suffered hugely after Kelleher made a 36 page-long statement alleging that he had raped and sexually assaulted her for five years.
Kelleher made complaints in March 2001 at Anglesea Street Garda station that the officer had repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her at his home and other locations and followed them up with further complaints in September 2001.
