‘An incompetent, useless hobbit’: Garda accused of hate campaign at lover’s ex-wife
What female garda is accused of saying about partner’s ex
A COURT has heard astonishing claims that a female garda made malicious claims about her then partner’s ex, including that she was an ‘incompetent useless hobbit’.
Garda Eve Doherty denies harassing State solicitor Elizabeth Howlin and describing her as politically corrupt, in vicious letters and emails.
She is accused of claiming Ms Howlin, a distant cousin of then minister Brendan Howlin, was a political appointee and that she would ‘pull’ files to prevent the prosecution of anyone connected to her or the government.
Dublin-based Garda Doherty, 49, has denied harassing Ms Howlin between September 2011 and March 2013 and making false statements claiming she was perverting the course of justice.
Over 18 months, letters and emails sent to her home, her work and her GP called her a ‘corrupt b **** ’ and an ‘incompetent useless hobbit’, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Ms Howlin, who worked in the office of the DPP at the time, told prosecutor Kerida Naidoo SC that all the email claims were untrue but they contained many personal details which are true.
Ms Howlin’s ex-husband David Chapman was in a relationship with Garda Doherty at the time. Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, said Garda Doherty denies writing any of the letters and emails. He said they were hideous and defamatory.
The first letter, sent to Ms Howlin’s home in September 2011, purported to be from her neighbour. It said she was ‘pompous’ and ‘arrogant’ and said she should ‘f*** off back to whatever hell hole you crawled out of’.
The letter named her young son and said they felt sorry for him for having ‘a c*** of a mother like you’, adding: ‘We are all watching every move you make.’
That December a neighbour alerted her to leaflets on cars around her estate, in Blackrock south Dublin, stating that she was a corrupt state solicitor and had interfered in the prosecution of a local family of ‘drug dealers’.
Ms Howlin said the allegations were completely untrue and the worst type of allegations for someone in her job. She said they were very upsetting and gave a malicious and false impression. They made her very anxious and she stopped sleeping and suffered a loss of confidence.
Ms Doherty is charged with harassment of Ms Howlin and making a false statement on March 1, 2012 and March 31, 2012, claiming she tried to pervert the course of justice. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The jury heard that the first letter sent to Ms Howlin’s home described her as ‘Ms Midget’ and ‘Ms Hag Howlin’. A few weeks later a letter was sent to the newly appointed DPP Claire Loftus, wrongly describing Ms Howlin as the niece of Minister Howlin, and claiming she had tried to stop Ms Loftus getting the DPP position.
‘She will stab you in the back at every opportunity. Watch your back with that evil corrupt bitch,’ the letter, signed ‘from a friend’, stated. Ms Howlin said it was very upsetting to have a letter like that sent to her boss. She said there was no truth in it. In December she learned of the leaflets in her estate that had a photo of her with claims she was allowing a family get away with dealing drugs in the area.
An email to newspapers accused Ms Howlin and Ms Loftus of corruption and gives out their home addresses. It said the DPP rejected 70% of sex crime referrals. Ms Howlin said she would have a role in deciding if there was sufficient evidence to prosecute and any suggestion that she would not prosecute in sex offence cases was a most serious allegation. She said the email was ‘very upsetting, full of lies and very malicious’.
Another letter falsely claimed Brendan Howlin ‘regularly rings his sister’, referring inaccurately to the complainant, and ‘she pulls files... and lo and behold there are no prosecutions’.
The witness said: ‘I have never ever “pulled” a file. I have never been contacted by a politician and pulled a file.’
Another email, sent in 2012, claimed her brother Eamonn Howlin was arrested for the murder of a diver. She said her brother, her ex-husband and a third man were director of a diving company. There was a diving accident and the company was prosecuted under health and safety laws and fined. She said the email placed ‘a malicious twist’ on these facts.
She said the last straw came when she learned her GP had received similar allegations corruption claims. She wondered how somebody could know who her doctor was.
It was claimed she had thrown ‘evil firework parties’ and ‘drug parties’ at her home and used firearms with her son.
But she told the court her son and his father used to set off fireworks at Halloween, and she had brought her son to an Airsoft range and clay pigeon shooting.
The trial continues before Judge Melanie Greally.
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There was no truth in the claims