Former garda wins claim over lost wages after release from prison

Gordon Deegan

A former garda who was dismissed from her role has won her claim in the Labour Court that she suffered an unlawful deduction in her wages following her release from prison five years ago.

Eve Doherty was jailed for three years in January 2018 for harassing State solicitor Elizabeth Howlin. Ms Doherty then successfully appealed the length of her sentence and was released on July 2nd, 2019, after spending 20 months in prison.

Ms Doherty was dismissed from An Garda Síochána in October 2019.

On Monday, the Labour Court deputy chair, Louise O'Donnell, ordered An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice to pay Ms Doherty her suspension allowance from July 3rd, 2019 to July 23rd, 2019.

In her ruling following a Labour Court hearing on September 18th, Ms O'Donnell found that the suspension allowance was properly payable to Ms Doherty for that period and the failure to pay “was an unlawful deduction”.

The order overturns a decision by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and came before the Labour Court on appeal from Ms Doherty.

Ms O'Donnell pointed out that for the period between July 3rd and July 23rd 2019, An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice accepted that no review of Ms Doherty’s entitlement to suspension pay had occurred and that Ms Doherty had not been informed that she would not be entitled to suspension pay.

Ms O’Donnell pointed out that no entitlement to payment of the suspension allowance arises for the period where a Garda member is jailed.

Ms O'Donnell said that for the period from January 24th, 2019, to July 2nd, 2019, it was not disputed that Ms Doherty was detained and therefore there was no entitlement to payment of the suspension allowance during that period.

Ms Doherty's 2017 trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that over an 18-month period between September 2011 and March 2013, letters and emails were sent to the home and workplace of Elizabeth Howlin, a State solicitor at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The letters and emails called Ms Howlin an “incompetent useless hobbit” and a “two-faced b***h” and other insults that the trial judge called “outright and scurrilous lies”.

The trial also heard that Ms Doherty, who is from Dublin, also distributed leaflets around Ms Howlin's housing estate, falsely claiming she was a political appointee.

The court heard Ms Howlin did not know Ms Doherty until the trial and that Ms Doherty was then in a relationship with Ms Howlin's ex-partner.

Ms Doherty had denied the harassment charge and was acquitted on two counts of making false statements. Ms Doherty continues to plead her innocence to the harassment.

Ms Doherty was a detective sergeant who was assigned to the crime and security division of An Garda Síochána.

In July 2020, Ms Doherty lost her Supreme Court bid to overturn her conviction for harassment.

Ms Doherty was first arrested in connection to the harassment investigation in 2013 and suspended with pay.