Gardaí said girl was ‘owed apology’

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.

Lydia O’Hara was a Junior Certificate student of Scoil Chriost Rí in Portlaoise in March 2004 when, the court heard, she was a victim of an allegation made up by another student, who claimed money had been regularly extorted from her by three girls at break-time in the school bike shed.

Ms O’Hara, a 25-year-old mother of one, is suing the school board of management and the Garda Commissioner for defamation, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional and physical harm.

The school issued a number of apologies to Ms O’Hara, including a lengthy one read out at assembly, the court heard. However, it is denying the claims.

Gardaí deny she was detained and say they must investigate a serious allegation like extortion.

Ms O’Hara told the court as a result of the false allegation, she had tried to take her own life, self-harmed, suffered from panic attacks in public, had to undergo counselling, and is still on medication for depression.

The court heard a first-year pupil’s mother had written to the school alleging she had been the victim of extortion for around six months and that it involved around €1,000. She also made a complaint to gardaí.

Martin Giblin, for Ms O’Hara, said the school allowed gardaí to come in to set up a “sting” operation in which a marked €20 note was put into the school bike shed. Ms O’Hara found herself the innocent victim of this sting

Later that day, she said a garda came to her home. “He just looked at me and said: ‘Young lady you are owed a very big apology, the girl is after admitting to making it all up’,” she said.

The case continues.