Woman sent lewd card and G-string to Garda, court told

A woman admitted posting a lewd Valentine’s card and a G-string to a detective garda but denied mailing him a bullet or acting on behalf of his colleagues.

Dublin District Court heard claims of bullying and harassment in a section of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Julie Conway Browning, aged 49, from Dermot O’Dwyer House, Hardwicke St, Dublin, has entered a not guilty plea. She is accused of giving information she knew to be false or misleading to GSOC, at its office on Abbey St, Dublin, in October 2012.

Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, told Judge Bryan Smyth the court would hear evidence a complaint had been submitted to GSOC in 2011 from the wife of Detective Sergeant Michael Buckley. She told GSOC her husband been subjected to “harassment and bullying” by two named colleagues, including a Detective Garda David O’Brien.

She alleged that in a February 2011, her husband, “received an envelope in the post, it contained a Valentine’s card”. Inside the card was poem of a “graphic sexual nature” as well as a “black and red G-string and a 22 calibre bullet”. Mrs Buckley told GSOC she feared for her family’s safety.

The court heard her husband established when the letter was posted and that it was sent by Ms Conway Browning in his inquiries.

A GSOC officer later interviewed Det Gda O’Brien and the accused. Both claimed they had not seen each other since the 1990s.

However, GSOC analyst Angela Murray said that data from two phone companies showed from February 1 until March 26, 2011, the accused and Det Garda O’Brien had contacted one another’s phones 291 times.

Ms Conway Browning admitted mailing the envelope at Dorset St Post Office and that it contained the card, the poem and the g-string, and said she did so on her own. However, she told GSOC, “I did not send any bullet”.

The trial continues today.

Det Gda O’Brien has pleaded not guilty and is to be tried separately.