Sligo District Circuit Court heard yesterday that a civil servant asked a woman for oral sex so he wouldn’t prosecute her for claiming benefits.

Andrew Gilmartin, 46, allegedly made this request to a women in her 30s when she was in a meeting with him in a Department of Social Protection office. The women was in the Department of Social Protection offices to discuss a Revenue letter that she had received stating that she was on the dole and working at the same time. According to the Irish Mirror, the women wept as she told the court what had happened. She said that Mr Gilmartin asked her “what she was going to do for him” to avoid being prosecuted. The women told the court that Gilmartin locked the door of the office. She then said that he became angry and started pacing up and down the room. She alleges, then that he made the incident out to be more serious than he had at first and claimed that the meeting was an interview. She told the court;

“He told me he could help me but we would have to keep it between ourselves and that he would have to pull a lot of strings He leaned back with his hands behind his head and said ‘here’s how it’s going to happen, this is what you are going to do for me You are going to give me a blowjob”

Gilmartin, from Drumfad Grange, County Sligo denies a charge of coercion under section 9 of the Non Fatal Offences Against The Person Act 1997. He further denies interviewing the woman in Cranmore, Sligo, with a view to compelling her to do an act that she had legal right to abstain from on April 9, 2014. The trial continues tomorrow.