Disgraced garda is the daughter of bodyguard to Lord Mountbatten
Off icer with a drug habit was third generation of police off icer in her family
A DISGRACED garda who leaked sensitive information to a criminal gang is a third-generation garda whose father helped convict Lord Louis Mountbatten’s killers, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
In what was described as the first case of its kind Jimell Henry, 36, was jailed for 18 months after a court heard she accessed the Garda Pulse system from her base in Dublin and passed operational details on to crime contacts in Sligo using a ‘gouger’ phone.
Her father Kevin Henry is a highly respected retired garda who was assigned as a young detective to guard Lord Mountbatten during his annual four-week visit with members of his family in Classiebawn Castle in Co. Sligo.
Speaking in 2009, Mr Henry told how he struck up a friendly relationship with Prince Philip’s uncle before the royal was blown up by the IRA.
‘Naturally, you had to keep your distance
‘Deplorable action… and premeditated’
but he was a warm and friendly man. There were no airs or graces about any of them… It was a very relaxed, easy relationship, although the prospect of danger was never far below the surface.’
He recounted how he watched in horror as Mountbatten’s boat exploded.
‘Very suddenly, there was this enormous explosion. The noise was tremendous, terrifying. There was a huge mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke and multicoloured flashes. This cloud rose high above me, and then started to disappear.
‘There was debris in the sky and on the sea and I was hit with a huge shower of sea spray. I could hear screams of panic and pain.’
Mr Henry’s experience was surely one he recounted to his daughter Jimell before she joined the force. She would have known of the high esteem in which he and her grandfather – also a garda – were held in their community.
This week Mr Henry looked on as his daughter was jailed. She kissed him before she was led away. She told investigators that the death of her mother when she was 15 years old had affected her.
The court heard Jimell had become compromised by a drug habit and got involved with people from the ‘other side of the tracks’ when she carried out the offences over a five-month period.
When she was caught, her phone had contact numbers for The Pharmacy and The Child, two senior members of a Sligo criminal gang.
Judge Keenan Johnson, who said it was a ‘deplorable action, undertaken with premeditation and planning’ handed down a three-year sentence at Sligo Circuit Court.
Henry, of Cairns Hill, Sligo, pleaded guilty to three charges of disclosing information obtained during the course of her duty as a garda in Co. Dublin, knowing that it was likely to have a harmful effect. She also admitted four counts of disclosing operational details without proper authority. She further pleaded guilty to two charges of forging prescriptions for medication and two of giving false information to obtain prescribed medication from chemists in Sligo.
Previously, Superintendent Jim Delaney told the court gardaí in Sligo were concerned in 2015 and 2016 that sensitive Garda information was finding its way to a Sligo criminal gang that was allegedly in a feud with another gang.
He said there had been a number of tit-for-tat incidents. Ballymunbased Henry contacted a Sligo garda to say sensitive Garda information was up on social media.
An investigation was launched and it was found that Henry herself had made 980 queries on the Pulse system in a two-week period and 73% of those were about Sligo.
A surveillance operation observed her vehicle driving into an underground car park in Ballisodare, Co. Sligo. A black car driven by a man nicknamed Pharmacy was also driven in and both were arrested.
Gardaí found two phones in Henry’s car, one of which she described as a ‘scrote’ or ‘gouger’ or ‘burner’ phone. Supt Delaney said the investigation confirmed that requests
Her phone had numbers for senior criminals
were made by the criminals and answers given by text.
Judge Johnson suspended the final 18 months of the sentence on condition that Henry enter a good behaviour bond for five years.