Garda partner withdrew her claims that he was ‘obsessive’

THE Charleton tribunal heard details of a statement made by the partner of garda whistleblower Keith Harrison outlining his ‘obsessive’ behaviour.

The statement made by Marissa Simms in October 2013 outlined how whistleblower Garda Harrison would persistently phone and text her, ‘asking me where I was or who I was with’.

The tribunal is looking at interactions between the Garda Síochána, Tusla and Garda Harrison.

Ms Simms withdrew the statement three months later, saying she was put under pressure to make it.

Inspector Goretti Sheridan told the tribunal yesterday that Ms Simms came to the Garda station in Letterkenny and made the statement voluntarily.

‘The phone calls and texts were still as persistent as ever but I think that as time went on, I became more accepting of it because I was used to it and didn’t see it as strange or obsessive,’ Ms Simms said in the statement.

The statement also outlined messages from other women that Ms Simms found on Garda Harrison’s phone.

The statement said Garda Harrison became ‘vile and aggressive verbally’ when he was drinking.

‘Since we moved into Woodbury House, there are at least three occasions when Keith put me out of the house,’ Ms Simms said in her statement.

Ms Simms made the statement on January 11, 2014, withdrawing earlier allegations of ‘obsessive’ and ‘irrational’ behaviour by her partner, Garda Harrison.

Inspector Sheridan told the tribunal yesterday that she was contacted on November 27, 2013, by Ms Simms about withdrawing her statement, which she originally made at Letterkenny Garda Station on October 6, 2013.

Earlier the same month, Inspector Sheridan had been informed that GSOC would not be following up on the statement after Ms Simms had told them she did not wish to make a complaint.

The inspector said Ms Simms made no complaint about how she had been treated when making her statement.

Inspector Sheridan told the tribunal that she did not know anything about Garda Harrison before she was transferred to Donegal in 2013. She said she had by then been a garda for 20 years, all of which she spent in Dublin.