Woman 'begged gardaí to stop mistreating cousin'

A woman begged gardaí to stop the mistreatment of her cousin in custody, the Morris Tribunal heard today.

Charlotte Peoples, 37, said she could hear her cousin Róisín McConnell being called a ’lying bitch’ by officers in the adjoining interview room in Letterkenny Garda Station.

“I thought they had done something to her. I was pleading with them to go in and stop what they were doing next door,” she said.

Mrs Peoples, from Raphoe, Co Donegal, said that when she made her request to the two gardaí interviewing her, Sergeant Michael Caroll and Detective Garda Michael Jennings, they failed to act.

“I thought it was their duty when they knew what was going on next door. They should have gone in and stopped it. To me, it was a form of mental torture with me. Maybe they thought they would have broke me.”

Mrs Peoples and her husband Michael were among 12 people arrested for questioning on December 4, 1996, about the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in Raphoe.

In her case, gardaí wanted to know about a phone call made to Letterkenny General Hospital by her mother, enquiring about Mr Barron’s condition.

Mrs Peoples said that when she heard the shouting and roaring from the interview room next door, she started to cry.

“I said: ’If you start that with me, you’re be carrying me out of here in a wooden box.'”

The tribunal heard that Sgt Carroll and Det Gda Jennings reassured her that she would be treated with respect and they did not shout at her during the interview.

However, in statements to the tribunal, both gardaí deny that Mrs Peoples asked them to intervene in the interview next door.

“I wish they were here so I could look them in the face. I’m strong enough to stand up to them now and call them liars,” said Mrs Peoples.

She said the gardaí had asked her during the interview if she was having an affair with a local man.

“They just made me feel so dirty, that they thought I was having an affair with somebody. To me, they were just trying to degrade me.”

Mrs Peoples had been arrested at Raphoe Garda Station after she had gone down to inquire about her husband Michael, who had also been arrested that day. She was released without charge 12 hours later but the arrest had a devastating effect on her.

She became too afraid to leave the house in case she was arrested again and stopped working.

She started getting treatment for depression and asked her mother to look after her four-year-old daughter.

“I had no interest in her. I had no interest in anything,” she said.

The tribunal heard that in 1999, gardaí arrived with a warrant to search their house in Raphoe for a silver bullet.

“I just couldn’t believe it that this was happening again,” said Mrs Peoples, who added that she had to resume psychiatric treatment after the search.

Under cross-examination, she told former garda Martin Leonard that she blamed gardaí for the botched investigation into the death of Mr Barron.

She said that if officers wanted to know about the phone call made from their home, all they had to do was ask her mother, who was baby-sitting on the night.

“If the job had been done right beforehand, I would never have to have been arrested,” she said.

When asked about her attitude to the force, she said: “I totally and utterly hate them. I can’t stand them.”

Mr Leonard, who defended his record as the custody officer on the day of her arrest, said he hoped she would get money for the wrong that had been done to her.

“No amount of money will ever compensate for what happened to me,” said Mrs Peoples.