A woman has been awarded €28,000 against the Garda after a High Court jury found she suffered emotional harm as a result of a false extortion allegation against her when she was a secondary school student.

A garda handed €20 to a 15-year-old schoolgirl and told her to get some phone credit for herself after telling her she was owed "a very big apology" for being wrongly accused of extorting the same €20 from another pupil, the High Court heard yesterday.