A ROYAL Dublin Society employee told the High Court yesterday she had suffered a form of mental torture for the past eight years from the alleged attentions of an expelled member of the society.
Ms Olivia O'Reilly was giving evidence on the fifth day of an action by the RDS which seeks an order restraining Mr James Yates, an artist, of Cill Cais, Old Bawn, Co Dublin, from communicating with its staff or entering its premises.
Mr Yates denies the RDS claims that he was guilty of nuisance, intimidation and harassment of its staff. He has counterclaimed for damages, alleging interference with his rights and privileges as an RDS member. He also claims the RDS has slandered, libelled, intimidated and harassed him.
Ms O'Reilly, in evidence, said she had received birthday, Valentine Day and Christmas cards and letters from Mr Yates since 1989. She claimed he had followed her to race meetings and to her own and her family's home.
She started receiving cards from about 1988 on. In 1991 she received flowers at her home together with a poem, became nervous and went to the Garda.
Before her birthday in December 1991, she only knew Mr Yates as a trade exhibitor at RDS shows. During the 1991 Horse Show she brought a fax message to Mr Yates's stand. He shouted "Bitch" at her in front of the attendants. She was very shocked and reported the matter to her boss, Mr Gerry McAuliffe.
Flowers were delivered to her private address at Sandymount. She went to the Garda, but she was not aware there had been any prosecution.
Her counsel, Mr Peter Charleton SC, referred to a letter from Mr Yates in March 1992 in which he said: "You must have known I was very fond of you as a person ... . Did it never occur to you, Olivia, that I sent you that rose, because, even with all our differences, I thought you were really a very nice woman?
"Could you not accept a rose, and an offbeat rhyme or even compliment without thinking there is some sexual connotation involved?"
The letter made Ms O'Reilly afraid and she brought in her solicitors.
She referred to a court undertaking by Mr Yates not to communicate with her except through her solicitor. He had not abided by this. She said she got a telephone call in which the caller, whom she took to be Mr Yates, said: "I will get you."
She learned that Mr Yates was organising an exhibition entitled "Through Olivia's Eye". Some paintings contained drawings of her face and what she took to be her eye appeared in all the paintings.
In a letter to her father, she alleged that Mr Yates had admitted his obsession for her. On January 25th, 1995, when she opened her front door, Mr Yates had tried to push it in but she slammed it shut and telephoned the Garda.
The hearing continues today.