Case of 'false claims' woman adjourned for report

The sentence of a woman described as a "nut and fruit case" after she made a series of false claims to the Gardaí of murder, shooting, stabbing, and house fires and of being with a reported abandoned baby has been adjourned again pending a psychiatric report.

Ann Lynch (aged 37) with a current address at Fortlawn Avenue, Blanchardstown had a history of ringing ‘999’ and made 99 silent calls "with heavy breathing" on one night alone, Sergeant Michael Drew told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when evidence was heard on March 15.

Lynch, who formerly lived in a caravan at Whitestown Avenue, Blanchardstown pleaded guilty to a series of charges of making a false statement causing apprehension that persons and property might be damaged, to making false reports causing inconvenience and to wastage of garda resources on various dates between February 2002 and October 2003.

Ms Caroline Biggs BL, defending, told Judge Yvonne Murphy that Lynch had missed an appointment with the probation services because she was hospitalised for pneumonia.

Judge Murphy adjourned sentencing to July 13 and ordered that a psychiatric report be sent to the probation services before this date to allow them include the assessment in their own report.

Mr Desmond Zaidan BL, prosecuting, said that in the early hours of July 17, 2002 she rang Santry garda station to report a murder that never occurred and made the 99 silent phone calls the same day. She made five more silent phone calls to the same station the following morning.

Detective Garda Kevin Walsh told Mr Anthony Hunt BL that Lynch was not the woman who originally made the widely-reported false claim on October 27, 2003 that she had abandoned a baby in Ballymun but came onto the scene a day later.

Det Garda Walsh said Lynch rang Ballymun garda station seven times on the evening of October 28, 2003 when the investigation into the case of the alleged abandoned baby was in full-swing.

She claimed she was ringing from one of the Ballymun tower-blocks and while crying and sounding very upset on the phone she also told gardaí that "the child is not breathing".

When the calls were later traced to her she denied she had been trying to gain media attention but agreed she was lonely and depressed and that her behaviour might have been "a call for help".

Sgt Drew said the first recorded phone call by Lynch to 999 was on February 24, 2002 when she claimed there had been a shooting at an address in Raheny.

She placed her second such call on June 14, 2002 when she said there had been a stabbing at another house on the same street in Raheny where she claimed the shooting had occurred. She rang the fire brigade on July 15, 2002 falsely reporting that a caravan was on fire at a Raheny address.

Sgt Drew said that on August 11, 2002 she rang the Dublin Fire Brigade again to report an alleged house fire in the same area in Raheny. Gardaí and firemen were dispatched to all the locations she specified, causing waste of manpower and incurring unnecessary expenses.

Sgt Drew agreed with Ms Biggs that Lynch made no attempt to disguise her voice during the calls and that she sounded intoxicated.

Ms Biggs submitted to Judge Murphy that Lynch’s behaviour in these cases could best be described as that of "a fruit and nut case".

Ms Biggs said Lynch had "a low level of intellectual functioning" and her life had been "falling apart" when she made the phone calls. Both her parents were dead and she had been experiencing problems with claiming a substantial inheritance her mother had left her.