Dr. Richard O'Flaherty:

She asked me whether she could go to the toilet, as they had not let her. She had a large, heavy coat on her. As she crossed the corridor, a big blob of water dropped. She was weeing in her pants. I advised her immediately to go to hospital, but the detectives said, "No", because they wanted to interrogate her for information on her sons. I told them that she would go into a diabetic coma because she did not have her medication and she was unstable, but they told me that I was interfering with the course of justice. I told them that I was going home, that they were responsible and that they should get another doctor to care for her. I was her doctor, but I had no control within the Garda station.

At 6.30 p.m., I was telephoned and told that the lady was on the verge of collapse. When I said I would not go back, they told me that I had to because she needed a doctor. I told them I would only return on condition that I would be there as a police doctor, not a private one. That gave me control. I telephoned an ambulance. She was admitted, but she is now a vegetable in a city home.

In another case, a special needs boy was arrested after he borrowed his father’s car. He had the body of a 17 year old but the mind of an eight or ten year old. He was taken in, stripped of his pants and underpants, whipped with the belt – I am synopsising – and told that his dad would be arrested and treated the same way.