Eve Doherty, 51, had the remainder of her three-year sentence suspended by the Court of Appeal.

Ms Doherty was found guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of harassing State solicitor Elizabeth Howlin between September 2011 and March 2013. She had denied the charge.

She was found not guilty on two counts of making false statements on two dates in March 2012, in which she claimed Ms Howlin was perverting the course of justice.

Ms Howlin worked with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) where she was involved in deciding whether or not to direct prosecutions in criminal cases. Ms Doherty held the position of detective sergeant and worked in the crime and security division of An Garda Síochána.

The trial heard that over an 18-month period, letters and emails were sent to Ms Howlin’s home, her place of work and to her GP calling her “corrupt”, an “incompetent useless hobbit” and a “two-faced bitch”.

Sentencing Ms Doherty to three years’ imprisonment in January 2018, Judge Melanie Greally said the communications by Ms Doherty contained outright and “scurrilous” lies. They contained statements which were variously disparaging, insulting and offensive, both from a personal and professional manner.

But the President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham, yesterday suspended the remaining balance of the sentence. He said she was a first time offender of previously good character and that she had found the first year in the Dóchas women’s prison “exceptionally difficult”.

Men in her situation would have served a significant portion of their sentence in an open prison but no such facility existed in the State for women, he added.

Michael O’Higgins SC, for Ms Doherty, cited her achievements and the difficulties gardaí face in prison.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the decision to impose a straight three-year sentence was an error and that the trial judge should have suspended a portion of the sentence.

He said the court would suspend the unserved portion of Ms Doherty’s sentence so long as she did not contact nor communicate with the victim for five years.