Irish Police ‘rape tape’ woman goes public

One of the two women protestors subjected to threats of rape by Irish police whilst held in their custody has gone public to demand an independent inquiry into the events surrounding the policing of the disputed Shell gas project.

Jerrie Ann Sullivan, a postgraduate student from Dublin, said that the alleged remarks that were inadvertently recorded on a video camera of Irish police joking about raping them had been deeply traumatic to hear.

"The words used were horrifying and have caused deep distress," she told the Irish Independent.

"The context of these words has been causing deep trauma in a community for years and continues today. This is just a glimpse of the reality of the intimidation and the violence the community has been facing for years."

Sullivan and the Shell to Sea campaign (which strongly opposes a plan by Shell to develop the Corrib gas field) have called for the Irish Police Ombudsman to widen its inquiry into the affair and they have also called for an independent probe by international experts.

Currently an internal police investigation is being reviewed by Police Commissioner Martin Callinan, examining claims that officers had laughed about carrying out sex attacks on the activists in their custody.