Witness Marie Farrell has told the Ian Bailey case at the High Court that a Garda stripped naked in a house in Schull and asked her for sex.
Mrs Farrell said the incident with Detective Garda Jim Fitzgerald happened in the summer of either 1997 or 1998 but she did not tell anyone until years later.
In heated exchanges with counsel for the State, Mrs Farrell denied telling lies.
Paul O'Higgins SC said Mrs Farrell had introduced it "as a threat in public" when reference was made to the incident last week but no detail given.
"So can you please say now what this is? What is the dark secret which you said you hold over Garda Fitzgerald?" he asked.
"It's just something personal," she replied, adding: "I can tell you but it will cause huge embarrassment".
Mr O'Higgins said: "It may do but there are a lot of things you've done which have caused embarrassment, let's have it out".
She said Det Garda Fitzgerald had called to a house she was cleaning in Schull and she went upstairs.
When she came down he was standing in one of the bedrooms and had stripped naked and asked her for sex.
"I told him to get the f*** out".
She asked Mr O'Higgins "do you think I want to be sitting here in public saying this so there will be more newspaper headlines about Marie Farrell and what went on. I would not sit here and embarrass myself.
"My children are all adults now, it is not easy for them to read headlines like that".
Mr O'Higgins said he did not know what her relationship with newspaper headlines was and he was still trying figure her out.
He pressed her for the exact date it happened and said "any normal person could not forget the day the month the hour at which such an incident happened".
She said she had seen a growth low down on Det Garda Fitzgerald’s stomach.
"How would I know that was there if I had not seen him naked?"
She said she had only told her husband about this and only told solicitor Frank Buttimer about it in recent weeks. She knew his wife and did not want to tell anyone about it, she said.
Mr O’Higgins said she was "no shrinking violet when it came to making allegations of extraordinary lewd behaviour by gardaí".
Mrs Farrell said: "It is not an invention, I am not lying".
Mr O’Higgins said the incident would be denied by the garda as would another incident she referred to last week involving an encounter with Detective Sergeant Maurice Walsh in the toilets of a golf club.
Mrs Farrell claimed Det Sgt Walsh exposed himself to her and said he was turned on by fitting up Mr Bailey.
Today Mr O'Higgins said that would be denied by the Garda.
He again questioned her about why she did not tell everyone about the incident and Mrs Farrell said these things happen when people have drink taken.
"How often do you say things like this happened to you?"
"Maybe not anymore but certainly years ago. When I was younger maybe every other weekend" she replied.
"Every other weekend you would have men approaching you with their penis out?" Mr O'Higgins asked.
"Not like that no. But do you think I wouldn't have been propositioned years ago when I was younger, thinner and better looking?" she asked.
"This was something that would have amounted to a sexual assault," Mr O'Higgins said.
"Yes it was sexual assault. It did happen," Mrs Farrell replied.
It was also suggested to Mrs Farrell that the evidence she had given to an internal garda inquiry about her statements identifying Ian Bailey was "wholly incompatible" with what she had told the jury in this case.
Mr O'Higgins said Mrs Farrell had told the McAndrew inquiry in 2006 that she had signed three or four statements even though the contents were false.
He said the first time she ever mentioned signing blank pages was when she went to the Garda Ombudsman in 2012.
He said she told GSOC she had signed three or four blank pages but that had increased to up to eight when she gave evidence in this case.
Mrs Farrell said at the time she gave her evidence to the McAndrew inquiry she was under a lot of stress as her children were being harassed by gardaí, they were trying to sell their house and had to move out of west Cork.
"Can I suggest to you that if you are telling the truth you don't have to remember what you said."
"I am telling the truth" she replied.
Mr O'Higgins also quoted from a newspaper article in 2012 where Mrs Farrell was reported as saying "It was claimed I had signed blank statements. They were not blank...I never read through them I just signed them."
He said again this was totally at odds with what she was saying now.
Mr O'Higgins said "Far from being put off by publicity, you are someone who has courted it".
"I haven't courted it" she said.
Mrs Farrell agreed she had given an exclusive interview to the Irish Mirror in March 2012 and said she had done so in response to a story the previous week which she took issue with.
She agreed she had posed for photographs.
"I don't remember saying that to her and I rang her (the journalist) the day the paper came out and I said that to her. I told her the article made me look stupid again."
Mr O'Higgins asked if she took any action about the article and she said no.
You are not slow to get involved in court proceedings you are taking an action for damages yourself? "I may do so," Mrs Farrell replied.
"You are no stranger to the notion of litigation. Repeatedly people had to sue you to pay your debts. You had decrees made against you in court?" Mrs Farrell said this was true.
This article accurately represents what you told them because if it didn't you would be the first trooping along looking for damages?"
"No, that's not true," Mrs Farrell said.
It was also put to Mrs Farrell that 90% of the contact with Det Garda Fitzgerald had come from her and that she would frequently call him.
"That is not true," she replied.
It was also suggested to her that from late April 1997 her husband knew she had been out with another man on 23 December 1996 and therefore gardaí could not have held anything over her and she could have retracted statements then.
From then on the monkey was off your back," Mr O'Higgins said.
Mrs Farrell said she was told if she retracted statements she could be prosecuted for wasting garda time and giving false information.
She also said that by then gardaÍ had begun doing favours for them and she felt obliged to continue.
