A former garda who was arrested under the Official Secrets Act in 1991 and later jailed for five years claimed in the High Court yesterday that he was being subjected to sustained Garda harassment.
Mr Denis Kelly, an insurance agent, claimed that he and his home had been placed under surveillance and his employer had been approached by gardai seeking to have him dismissed. He said his elderly parents had been harassed, he himself had been verbally abused, his car had been searched on numerous occasions and his property unlawfully seized.
He claimed that road traffic summonses had been issued against him recently as a form of harassment. Having failed to secure his loss of employment, gardai were now using the Road Traffic Acts to try to have him disqualified from driving, he said.
Mr Kelly was given leave by Mrs Justice McGuinness to seek a number of orders against the State and the Garda authorities by way of judicial review, preventing the DPP from proceeding with a number of summonses.
In an affidavit Mr Kelly, of Barrow East, Ardfert, Co Kerry, said that he resigned from the force in 1991, having been a garda for nine years and having received four commendations for excellent police work.
In 1991, while on duty, he had been arrested and charged with two offences under the Official Secrets Act. At the Special Criminal Court in January 1992 he had pleaded guilty to one charge of having possession of a document contrary to Section 9 of the Act. Another charge of passing information to a named convicted member of the IRA had been withdrawn by the State.
Mr Kelly, in the affidavit, said he was sentenced to five years and was detained in Portlaoise Prison. He had been released on full remission in July 1995.
On his release he applied for a position as a gym instructor at a hotel. He said he was initially successful until informed by the management that, as a result of approaches by gardai, the post was no longer open to him.
In 1996 he got a part-time job at another hotel, but gardai contacted the general manager with a view to having him dismissed. The manager monitored his work for two weeks and he was told that, if it was deemed satisfactory, his employment would continue. That employment did continue.
Mr Kelly said he was aware that the Special Branch encouraged uniformed gardai to keep under surveillance, and report on the movements of, such persons as they considered merited attention, in particular republican sympathisers and activists. He believed he was regarded as coming within this category.
He claimed that he had been followed and put under surveillance while he was in his car going about his business, which involved a lot of travelling. His home was also frequently under surveillance. His car had been searched on numerous occasions and property unlawfully seized.
Mr Kelly said that he had been verbally abused and accused of being involved in the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe. He said emphatically and categorically that he had no part whatsoever in that killing, nor was he in any way associated with it.