IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Declan Brennan
A detective has been acquitted of forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the investigation of a priest accused of sexual abuse.
Detective Garda Catherine McGowan, aged 48, who is based at Bray Garda Station, had pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009, at Bray Garda Station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda Station and at Harcourt Street Garda Station between June 21 and 22, 2011.
The instrument was alleged to have been a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), dated January 14, 2009.
After a 14-day trial, a jury took just three hours to return unanimous verdicts of not guilty on all counts.
The State had alleged Garda McGowan had forged the letter to “hoodwink” gardaí who were reviewing whether she had acted properly in investigating allegations of sexual abuse by a priest. This investigation was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report which investigated clerical sexual abuse. The priest in Gda McGowan’s case was mentioned in the report.
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