A soldier has brought a High Court action alleging she was wrongly found guilty by her commanding officer of charges including having alcohol in her room while serving with the United Nations in Lebanon.
Pte Emma Kells (31), claims she was convicted of something she did not do by her battalion commander and, as a result, was repatriated to Ireland.
Her counsel said another member of the Defence Forces had admitted storing the alcohol. Pte Kells is a communications and electronic engineering technician in the Defence Forces stationed at McKee Barracks in Dublin.
Pte Kells said the convictions arose after three bottles of spirits were found in a room she shared with another member of the Defence Forces at the camp in Lebanon.
Pte Kells said the bottles were there from the time she moved in at the camp in Tibnin. She had not purchased them and did not have time to dispose of them.
Opening the case, Martin Giblin SC, for Pte Kells, said she was a gym instructor and scuba diver and not someone who abused alcohol.
