Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

A witness today told the inquest into the death of 14-year-old schoolboy Brian Rossiter that she saw him being hit by a garda while he was being arrested but this was strongly denied by gardaí involved in his arrest and detention.

Anne Marie Hannigan told Cork City Coroner’s Court how she was about 15 to 20 feet away when she saw Brian
Rossiter and his 14-year-old friend Anthony O’Sullivan being arrested outside the Piper Inn in Clonmel on the night of September 10th, 2002.

“I only remember one guard. He had his hand held behind his back - as Brian was trying to get away, it looked to me like he was using the other hand to get him down - it looked to me as if he was hitting him into the back of the head to  force him forward,” she said.

Ms Hannigan said that both Brian Rossiter and Anthony O’Sullivan were screaming and shouting as they were being  arrested and, while they were trying to get away, she felt that they “were being handled roughly for the age of them.”