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.