Security firm stays silent on discipline for assault

Irish Estates Management Ltd, which manages the ILAC shopping centre in Dublin, has said it cannot comment on any measures it has taken since a youth of Libyan extraction was beaten up by security guards who worked in the centre.

The company says it is bound to silence because of civil proceedings instigated by Mr Adhil Essalhi against the guards who beat him up. Delta Security, the men's employers, also refused to say yesterday whether they have taken any disciplinary action against the men since the incident.

Mr John Kavanagh and Mr Paul Fennell have admitted the assault on Mr Essalhi, but denied they were motivated by racist prejudice. Mr Kavanagh was sentenced to six months imprisonment for the offence by the District Court in October, while Mr Fennell was sentenced to three months.

Earlier this month, the men's sentences were quashed on appeal by the Circuit Court and the Probation Act was applied.

Judge Alison Lindsay was told that members of Delta Security had chased Mr Essalhi from the ILAC Centre at Parnell Street in Dublin, after he had attempted to use the toilets. Garda Liam Doran told the court that Mr Essalhi had been "chased onto a nearby building site, knocked to the ground and kneed in the back before other building workers intervened".

When Mr Essalhi was led to a Garda car, a garda accompanying him heard a voice from the central security operations room on one of the security guards' two-way radios ask: "Have they arrested the nigger yet?" Mr Essalhi was born in Ireland to a Libyan father and an Irish mother.

A spokesman for Irish Estates Management Ltd said yesterday they "would strongly reject and not tolerate any racist attitude or behaviour on the part of employees or contractors working for the company".

In appealing against Mr Fennell's prison sentence, his barrister said that the security guard wished to join the prison service.

The Department of Justice yesterday refused to comment on whether Mr Fennell had applied for a position in the prison service. However, a spokeswoman said that under the Civil Service Commissioners Act of 1956 a person could only be accepted into the prison service if the commissioners were "satisfied that the applicant is suitable on grounds of character".