RUC interrogation details used by Garda
A LIMERICK WOMAN LIVING in West Belfast has decided to leave
the city after both the Gardai and RUC threatened her with
loyalists.
Rosemary Lynch was arrested in Limerick City on 8 January
1997 and held for over 24 hours. During her detention Garda
detectives made specific references to the time when she was
arrested by the RUC at Grosvenor Road barracks on 10 January
last year and knew about three other times she was detained.
``At first they asked me about the killing of Jerry McCabe in
Adare and said I knew the whereabouts of the people who
killed him. They then said the RUC gave them the
information,'' she said.
``What really worried me was that the Guards kept referring
to the time I was arrested in Belfast in 1996 and held at
Grosvenor Road barracks. I was arrested when I went to the
barracks to hand in literature from a statutory agency I
worked with. My three children who are seven, nine and ten
were taken to a room by an RUC man and woman and asked
questions about me.
``The RUC detectives who questioned me tried to bribe me and
offered me a sum of money to turn informer. When I was in
Limerick the Guards quoted the figure I was offered and
promised to double it if I agreed to work for them''.
Lynch also said that the Guards were able to tell her that
the RUC were forced to apologise over the January incident
and name the RUC member who made the apology.
Lynch says she was pushed around by the Guards and one
``jumped on the table and put his hands on my throat. They
kept calling the RUC their `brothers' and said that my files
were in the hands of loyalists''.
Lynch has made an official complaint about her treatment by
the Guards and added, ``they were able to give details of the
other times I was arrested and it has worried me, especially
them saying loyalists have my files. I'm going to move out
of Belfast for the sake of my kids. It's not fair on them''.