Catherine McGowan acquitted on all three counts

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Detective Garda Catherine McGowan (48), based at Bray Garda Station, was acquitted of one count of forgery and two counts of using a false instrument. The proceedings were reported on 12 March 2015.

She had pleaded not guilty to all three charges. The forgery count concerned January 15, 2009 at Bray Garda Station. The two counts of using a false instrument concerned Bray Garda Station and Harcourt Street Garda Station between June 21 and 22, 2011.

After a 14-day trial, the jury of six men and six women took just under four hours to return unanimous not-guilty verdicts on all three counts.

The alleged instrument was a letter purportedly from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), dated January 14, 2009. The jury heard evidence of a copy which said prosecuting a priest accused of sexual abuse would be “impossible” because of “conjecture” in the complainant’s statement.

The State alleged that Garda McGowan forged the letter to “hoodwink” gardaí reviewing her handling of the investigation. It also claimed she never sent the case file to anyone, including the DPP, Chief State Solicitor or her superintendent.

Patrick Marrinan SC, defending, said exhaustive inquiries had established no link between Garda McGowan and the priest that might provide a motive. He said there was no evidence she had been anything other than diligent. He described the station’s filing system as “fairly haphazard” and said 30 per cent of files requested during a Garda Professional Standards Unit review could not be found.