A dismissed woman garda telephoned Aras an Uachtaran in 1992 and handed in a letter for the President in which she alleged that people were going to be killed within 48 hours and that there was "racketeering" by a garda, the High Court was told yesterday.
The court was told the allegations were made by Ms Geraldine Anne Marie Lohan, of Esmonde Terrace, Bray. Judicial review proceedings in which Ms Lohan is seeking orders quashing her dismissal from the Garda Siochana opened yesterday.
In an affidavit, Chief Supt Thomas Butler, now retired, said he had no idea why the name of the former president, Mrs Mary Robinson, was being brought into Ms Lohan's proceedings.
Ms Lohan, who joined the force in 1992, went to the Aras in October that year and handed in a letter. Because of the seriousness of the allegations, he was directed to investigate.
Mr Butler said he investigated allegations contained in a statement which he took from Ms Lohan in relation to a Garda station in Co Wicklow and found there was no substance whatsoever in any of them.
In the statement, Ms Lohan claimed she had no evidence but that there was a rumour that a colleague had a hand in quashing a rape case in 1989.
She said a man had claimed the reason he assaulted his wife was because he found Ms Lohan in bed with her. This was a tissue of lies, Ms Lohan said. Ms Lohan also alleged that when searches were carried out in the Garda station's area drugs were often found when a particular detective was not involved and never found when he was involved. She said in the statement that "someone" told her they saw a pub-owner giving the detective money from a till. She thought this might be protection money.
Ms Lohan named a Garda superintendent she alleged was involved in a hit-and-run accident after drinking with the same detective. Nothing ever came of the investigation.
She alleged there were "a lot of rumours" that a husband, who was a friend of the detective, might have murdered his wife in a stated year. The inquest verdict was suicide.
Mr Butler said Ms Lohan, in a reference to her own safety and her claim that she had been followed on a number of occasions, claimed that people would be killed within 48 hours. Mr Diarmaid Fawsitt, for Ms Lohan, told Mr Justice McCracken that a board of inquiry found her guilty of 18 disciplinary charges in November 1994 and the Commissioner had dismissed her in February 1995.
He read an affidavit by Ms Lohan's former solicitor, Mr Joseph Colgan, who said a doctor had decided that because of her ill-health she would be unfit for duty for a period. She was later told the inquiry had made a decision in her absence.
In his defence, the Commissioner claims he did not exceed his jurisdiction when he dismissed Ms Lohan and denied that she was not afforded an opportunity of calling evidence and rebutting the charges. The Commissioner said Ms Lohan failed to appear for the inquiry on seven occasions. The hearing resumes tomorrow.