A FATHER of nine has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a female garda who was trying to arrest him under the Public Order Act during the annual Puck Fair festival in Killorglin, Co Kerry, after he had allegedly refused to give her his name.
Cyril Moriarty (53), of Tulligbeg, Killorglin, had denied sexually assaulting the garda. He had also denied assault causing harm and obstruction of a garda on August 13th, 2008. The trial, which heard from a large number of Garda witnesses, took six days and had gone into its second week.
After 2½ hours of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women returned unanimous not guilty verdicts to the counts of assault yesterday.
They returned a majority guilty verdict on the lesser charge of obstruction of a garda. Judge Carroll Moran adjourned sentencing to Wednesday of next week.
The trial heard from the female garda, who had been on temporary transfer for the Puck Fair, that she had been grabbed in the groin by Moriarty when she approached him after being called to an incident in a pub in the early hours, when thousands were on the streets.
The incident took place near the door of the Garda station in the town and continued into the station itself, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee was told. The garda was assisted by bouncers from the pub, as her Garda colleague had been called to another incident near by.
Moriarty told the court the garda had approached him with a number of bouncers and they knocked him to the ground and dragged him into the Garda station. He said he had got the beating of his life and had to be removed by ambulance with broken ribs from the station. “I was the injured party that night. I didn’t touch the garda,” he said.
He had told the garda he would give her his name when she had gotten medical attention for his wife, who had suffered a broken wrist, he added.