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Gardaí have arrested a woman in her 40s in connection with a long-running harassment campaign against David and Susan Plower in rural Co Galway. The investigation, ongoing since 2020, has seen the family receive hundreds of threatening letters containing false allegations and evidence of stalking.
A nearly seven-year harassment campaign directed against a family in rural Co Galway , and which has been under Garda investigation all that time, has resulted in the first arrest in the case.
A woman in her 40s was arrested by gardaí in Galway on Thursday and was still being held for questioning on Friday. The investigation has been ongoing since David and Susan Plower from Loughrea first went to their local gardaí after they received harassing letters in January 2020. Since then, the campaign directed at them has intensified, with hundreds of letters received.
Confirming the first arrest in the case, gardaí said they have been conducting “an ongoing and active investigation into reports of ongoing harassment” since January 2020. They said the woman had been detained on suspicion of offences contrary to Non-Fatal Offences Against The Person Act and was being held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows for her to be questioned for up to 24 hours without charge.
A search was carried out on Thursday and a number of items taken for examination by gardaí. The Irish Times understands the woman is known to the family, although it is unclear how well they know her. The letters targeting the Plowers have become more frequent and more menacing over the years. They have also been sent to the couple’s family members’ homes, their workplaces and even sent to their friends’ homes.
Often they contained details that suggested the couple were being stalked, or at least closely monitored, as they have included accurate references to their movements around their community. Many of the letters contained baseless allegations about the Plowers and their family. On one occasion there was a claim their son was involved in drugs, at a time when he was a teenager preparing for his Leaving Cert.
The letter was addressed to their son and sent under the guise of coming from a concerned parent; however, the details were false. There have also been claims of extramarital affairs and comments about David Plower’s work, all without foundation and apparently designed to damage the family and to cause them distress. Speaking on Newstalk about four years into the campaign targeting them, the Plowers said they were being subjected to an ordeal that was relentless and disturbing.
They hoped the handwritten correspondence they took to the Garda in January 2020 would be a once-off incident; however, another arrived two weeks later. The campaign has continued to the present day.
“The guards took over from then because the whole letter thing kind of exploded,” Susan Plower said in 2024 of the second letter arriving early in 2020. “We’re into our fifth year now; really not a month goes by. We might have the odd six weeks where there won’t be something but then it . ” David Plower said the family was especially concerned because information about their movements was included that was often very detailed and accurate.
It was clear to them that the person writing the letters knew them. Speaking out in the media often resulted in more letters, he said, including to the media outlets concerned. He said the writer had “made slanderous comments about myself having extramarital affairs” and “baseless comments about my work” with constant comments about their movements.
“I remember on one occasion, Susan phoned me as the letter had come to her work and she said, ‘Do you remember my appointment last week in the hospital? Well, they have an accurate account of the time and date when I was there’. This is ... I suppose you could call it terrorism. ”
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