Rape remark victim has ‘little faith’ in inquiry
Backing calls by protest group Dublin Shell to Sea, Jerrie Ann Sullivan said that an independent international investigation into the entire handling of the Corrib gas project in Co Mayo by gardaí was the “only option”.
Her call came as details of a second recording emerged, detailing alleged comments by a Garda sergeant of a sexual nature to a protester about his wife.
At a conference organised by Dublin Shell to Sea, it was confirmed that neither of the two women involved in the rape comment controversy had yet made a complaint to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC).
Ms Sullivan, a post-graduate student from Dublin, said she had little hope in the public interest investigation into the recording set up by GSOC.
“I can’t dismiss the processes that are available domestically,” she said.
“But when I think about the fact that 111 complaints [about gardaí and the Shell protests] were made in the two-and-a-half years after the ombudsman was set up and no garda has ever faced a single consequence for any physical assault, the verbal abuse, the intimidation they have subjected the community to, it doesn’t leave me with very much hope and there needs to be an independent and international investigation into this. It’s the only option.”
Dublin Shell to Sea spokeswoman Caoimhe Kerins confirmed that neither Ms Sullivan nor the second, unidentified, woman had made a complaint to GSOC, but said they were in the process of doing so. The two women postponed appointments with GSOC for 10am yesterday.
Ms Kerins said the group’s experience of GSOC was also negative: “It does not compare to police ombudsman across the rest of Europe. Really it shouldn’t have the name ombudsman, if it does not have the power to take action against the gardaí.”
Ms Sullivan said she decided to go public after she was told by Dublin Shell to Sea that gardaí had allegedly leaked details of the names and addresses of both her and the other woman to the media. She said a journalist turned up at her door, which had caused her “great distress”.
She also made allegations that gardaí assaulted two protesters last Tuesday in Mayo, in which gardaí kicked and punched a man and punched a woman in the stomach, requiring her to be seen by a doctor.
Ms Kerins backed the allegations but said she did not know if the woman had made a complaint.
John Monaghan, spokesman of Mayo community group Pobail Chill Chomáin, played a recording in which he claims a Garda sergeant made sexual remarks about his wife in 2006. He said when he did complain to GSOC, he was told it was outside the six-month time limit for making a complaint.
He said the behaviour of gardaí in the two recordings was “systemic” and said the GSOC investigation must be extended into a wider review of policing in Corrib.
- TRANSCRIPT of a tape at a protest in Ballinaboy, Co Mayo, on October 13, 2006, recorded by John Monaghan, spokesman of community group Pobail Chill Chomáin.
It records derogatory remarks of a sexual nature about his wife allegedly made by a Garda sergeant.
The tape captures Mr Monaghan ridiculing the sergeant by joking about an XL label sticking out of his clothes.
“Do you see the XL on the thing — that’s his mouth.”
“It’s my c**k and your fucking wife will know all about it. I hope you’re recording all that now, John.”
“Any more comments about my wife?”
“I don’t know the woman… well, not exactly.”
“Any more comments about my wife?”
“I don’t know your wife.”
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