On the last day of February 1997, Ms X from North Strand in Dublin called 999 and asked to speak to the police. Her call was taken by Garda Joe Griffin of Unit B, Garda Communications, Harcourt Square. She said she was calling about revelations in the media about the procurement of abortions in a Dublin clinic.

A spokesman for the clinic had disputed these claims. Ms X said she was willing to give evidence that when she was 17 years of age, she had had an abortion at 10 Merrion Square in a clinic called Marie Stopes Reproductive Choices.

Garda Griffin put Ms X in touch with Det Insp Noel White (now a superintendent) of Pearse Street station, who had been asked to investigate the allegations in the media. Ms X came to Pearse St, where Insp White explained to her that because of her disclosures on the phone to Garda Griffin she had committed a crime and could be liable to prosecution.

According to the Garda file on the investigation, Ms X said she was unaware that she had committed a crime. Insp White asked her to think about her position. Ten days later, he called her and Ms X said she wished to make a statement.

In the statement, she said that when she was 16 she was going out with a married man from her locality. In November 1994, the relationship broke up. But in January 1995 the man got in contact with her again and she went out with him. That night she had sex with him.

Subsequently, she found she was pregnant. She gave a urine sample to a friend to bring to the Mater Hospital. She later collected the results from the hospital, using her friend's name. The results confirmed the pregnancy.

"I got the results and they were positive," Ms X told the detectives. "I was pregnant. I talked to my friend about this and it all took off from there. I never really actually sat down and thought it out. I was afraid to tell the man who would have been the father because he is involved in heavy crime and I was afraid of him and his wife."

Ms X thought of going to Britain for an abortion. However, she told the detectives, a friend - whom she later disclosed was in fact her sister - made an appointment for her in Dublin at 10 Merrion Square.

"I got into a taxi and flew home, got changed and went back into town and met my friend. We walked up to Merrion Square. We went to No 10. It was a blue door with loads of bells."

Ms X and her sister waited for about five minutes. "There was something funny about the doctor's room, I think there were two doors . . . When I walked in the door the desk was right in front of us. To the right there was a couch. At the bottom of the couch there was a silver tray with all kinds of things on it."

Her statement describes the doctor as being small and thin, with grey hair. "He was old, near enough to his 70s. He was trying to be nice but he was only putting it on. He would make your skin crawl."

The doctor asked Miss X why she wanted a termination of pregnancy. Her statement to the Garda takes up the story.

"I told him I was only gone 17 and I was pregnant for a married man. I told him I was a diabetic. There wasn't talk and I know I didn't tell him anything else . . . He told me to go and empty my kidneys and to bring him back a sample. I went out to the little toilet in the hallway and I brought him back a sample of my urine."

The doctor confirmed the pregnancy.

"He then felt my stomach and told me I hadn't emptied my kidneys enough so he sent me out to the toilet again. When I came back in, he gave me a tablet. He told me it would loosen the muscles. I had to wait a few minutes for the tablet to work. Then he gave me a half-glass of either whiskey or brandy. He told me to sip it and keep on sipping it."

Her statement says she was now on the couch and had taken off her clothes from the waist down.

"There were two things at the bottom of the couch that you put your legs up into . . . He then put a silver metal object into my vagina. I felt this opening my insides up. It was very painful. I had seen this on the little tray beforehand. I thought it looked like a thing you would have to keep knee boots open at the top."

If at first there was pain, now there was agony.

"He [the doctor] said it was a little more difficult because the way my womb was turned around - or words to that effect. The pain got about 10 times worse and he kept telling me to breathe. I was roaring crying. I was in absolute agony . . . "

The statement says the procedure was witnessed by Ms X's sister, who was so upset she was sipping the whiskey "or whatever it was".

The operation lasted for about 45 minutes, Ms X told detectives.

"I didn't see any blood or anything like that, but there might have been been when he was doing it but I didn't see it." The doctor gave her a prescription for antibiotics. Her sister paid the receptionist "either £100, £120 or £150 - I am not sure about that".

Exactly a week after the operation, Ms X went back to 10 Merrion Square. The doctor told her the operation "had worked". She told Insp White: "When I had the pregnancy terminated, I didn't know I was doing anything wrong. It didn't even occur to me. The first time I knew of it was when you said it to me. Since this, I feel scarred mentally and I am bitter towards the doctor because of the way he has left me . . . I would know this doctor again if I saw him."

In this Ms X was mistaken. On May 13th, 1997, Insp White and Det Sgt Oliver McEnerney went to the offices of Hayes & Sons, solicitors acting for the doctor who practised at the clinic, Marie Stopes Reproductive Choices at 10 Merrion Square. (The clinic is now under new management.) Insp White informed the doctor he was investigating an allegation that he, the doctor, had performed an abortion. Insp White cautioned the doctor: "You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to, but anything you do say will be taken down in writing and may be given in evidence."

The doctor said he understood the caution.

Then Insp White put a series of questions to him, one of which was: "Did you carry out an abortion [on Ms X] as alleged."

The doctor replied: "No, I did not."

"Do you recall her coming to your surgery at 10 Merrion Square?"

"No, I do not," said the doctor.

"It is alleged that you got [Ms X] to lie on a couch and that you put her legs into an apparatus at the bottom of the couch."

"No comment. I have no recollection."

"[Ms X] states she felt you put something into her vagina. This was like a discomfort until you started moving it. It felt as if you were scraping or tugging around inside her. This was very painful?"

"No comment or recollection," said the doctor. "You indicated to [Ms X] that the procedure did not usually take as long, but that it was difficult because of her womb. What did you mean by that?" asked the Inspector.

"No comment or recollection," said the doctor.

"Enquiries have been carried out by me at M. Davis & Co, pharmacy, 34 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3, and they have a record there which indicates that you prescribed antibiotics for one [Ms X, address given] and that the prescription was presented on February 28th, 1995. Have you any comment to make in relation to this?"

"No," said the doctor.

The doctor agreed to a suggestion by Insp White that he take part in an identification parade at Pearse Street Garda station where Ms X would be present. Ten volunteers took part in the parade, which was videotaped. However, Ms X told gardai she recognised nobody in the line-up.

Despite this, Insp White concluded there was some corroboration of what Ms X alleged and recommended that a prosecution go ahead. The Director of Public Prosecutions disagreed and directed that no prosecution be instituted.

IN their investigation of the clinic, gardai also interviewed a Ms Y, who claimed that she had a similar experience there as Ms X.

Ms Y made her statement to Garda Catherine Bartley at Pearse St Garda station on August 28th, 1996.

"I had a steady boyfriend since 1992," she told Garda Bartley. "I have been having sexual intercourse on a regular basis with him. I do not wish to name him. Around September 8th, I discovered I was pregnant . . . When I found out I was frantic because I didn't think I could manage a child. I phoned up a few friends discussing with them what I should do."

One friend gave her the name of the doctor at 10 Merrion Square.

"She told me he was cheap and would do an abortion . . . She said he would be about £150 but she was not too sure . . . "

Ms Y said she went to the clinic on September 10th. A woman who answered the door gave her a pill to take.

"I asked what it was and she said it was Valium. I took the pill and then [the doctor] called me to his room . . . [The doctor] was about 5' 7", scrawny build, grey hair . . . I think he was just dressed ordinary. I don't remember a white coat."

After doing a pregnancy test, Ms Y said the doctor said there was a 99 per cent chance that termination would work. If it did not, he would give her the names of some people in London, according to Ms Y's statement.

"He then told me to sit on the bed and take off the bottom half of my clothes. He then put both my feet into stirrups-type things. He stuck some sort of red thing into my vagina. It felt like he was scraping something inside me. It was really sore. He kept on saying it wouldn't hurt, but it did. It lasted about 12 minutes . . . "

Ms Y said the clinic charged £120, which she paid in cash. "I'm not sure whether I paid him half and then paid him the rest later."

She started bleeding that night. The doctor asked her to come back to see him but Ms Y said she wanted no more contact with him. Instead, she decided to see another doctor. She had noticed, she said, the name of a doctor - Sylvester Mooney - on the brass plate of the Albany Clinic in Baggot Street, close to where she lived.

She told Dr Mooney she had an abortion and was worried because she was bleeding since. Dr Mooney gave her pills and the bleeding stopped in a matter of days.

"It was only when Dr Mooney listed out to me the number of things that could have gone wrong while having the termination that I got angry and that is why I am making this statement because I do not want anything to happen anyone else . . . "

Ms Y said the passage of time meant her recollection of exact details and dates was hazy, but she was satisfied the statement she made to Garda Bartley was correct.

Now in possession of Ms Y's information, Dr Mooney felt obliged to report the matter to the Garda. In a statement to Det Insp Noel White of Pearse St, Dr Mooney said he advised Ms Y that he had to inform the Garda authorities as further procedures (abortions) carried out by this man could result "in the death or serious permanent injury of other women".

Dr Mooney said Ms Y appreciated the difficulty he had vis-a-vis his duty of confidentiality towards her but that this was outweighed by considerations of the public good.

Solicitors acting for Ms Y wrote to Garda Bartley saying she was very concerned lest her name come into the public domain, and she also wanted complete immunity from prosecution.

In the event, since the DPP decided not to press charges, neither issue became a problem for Ms Y.