Letterkenny Courthouse.
A FEMALE Garda has revealed how she tried to take her own life after allegedly being sexually assaulted and harassed by a fellow Garda, a court has heard.
During the cross examination of the alleged victim at Letterkenny circuit court yesterday, defence barrister, Mr Peter Nolan, revealed that the alleged victim “had blown the whole thing out of proportion.
He claimed that the victim, who was tearful throughout the cross examination, had come to the witness box “as if her world had fallen in”.
The accused, a Garda, who is in married and in 30s, denies seven charges of sexual assault and two charges of harassment against two female colleagues.
The case continues today and is expected to last two more days.
The incidents are all alleged to have happened between November 2010 and May 2011.
Mr Nolan put it to the witness repeatedly that she was “exaggerating” the claims of sexual assault, calling it a “storm in a teacup”. He asked the witness about a Christmas “secret Santa” present she gave him at Christmas 2010, which consisted of “sexy Santa boxers”.
He claimed that there a “glaring contradiction” in her evidence.The witness admitted she didn’t know why she gave the present but implied this was the type of presents that the other members of the unit were exchanging. She said it was absurd that Mr. Nolan suggested that she was making it up, calling him a callous man.
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