FOUR GARDAÍ have gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for forcing their way into a flat and assaulting its young occupant as he lay asleep in bed.
Seán O’Leary, Eoin Murtagh, Alan Conlon and Claire Delaney have pleaded not guilty to forcing entry to a premises at Basin Street Upper, entering as a trespasser and assaulting Owen Gaffney on February 17th, 2008.
Garda Murtagh, Garda Conlon and Garda Delaney have also pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of Fidelma Gaffney.
Garda O’Leary, Garda Murtagh and Garda Delaney are based at Kilmainham Garda station and Garda Conlon is based at Kevin Street Garda station.
In his opening address to the jury, Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, said there would be evidence that the four accused gardaí went to the flat and entered the premises without a warrant.
He said the garda on duty in Kilmainham Garda station had been unaware of any intended operation in the area that day.
Mr O’Connell said Ms Gaffney would give evidence that she was shown a piece of paper, which was not a warrant, before the accused gardaí entered her home and went upstairs to her son’s bedroom.
He said Mr Gaffney would say Garda O’Leary and Garda Murtagh struck him with batons, although he did not know Garda Murtagh’s correct name at the time, and that he had to go for treatment at St James’s Hospital as a result of the beating.
Mr O’Connell told the jury there would also be evidence that Mr Gaffney’s mother was forcibly shut into a bathroom.
Mr O’Connell said gardaí could only enter someone’s home, which is protected under Article 40 of the Constitution, in a number of specific circumstances defined by statute.
Gardaí could only enter a premises with a search warrant or arrest warrant or if they have reasonable grounds to believe a person inside had committed an offence meriting a prison sentence.
Mr O’Connell also said that people acting in accordance with a common plan, whether expressly or tacitly, were said to be acting in joint enterprise and were all guilty of an offence.
He said in this case the prosecution alleged all four accused gardaí had a prearranged plan to go to Mr Gaffney’s home and give him a beating. “You can draw conclusions from their conduct and draw common-sense deductions from such conduct about what they intended to do.”
Mr O’Connell told the jury it would hear evidence from another garda and two student gardaí who did not participate in the incident but who were at the scene.
He said student Garda Catherine Patterson would say her tutor at the time, Garda O’Leary, told her he had to assist two uniformed colleagues in an altercation with Mr Gaffney around the James’s Street area the previous evening while he was off duty.
Mr O’Connell said there was no record of this altercation in Kilmainham Garda station and that Mr Gaffney denied involvement in any such incident.
The jury would hear that Mr Gaffney had a history of public order offences and there had been “conflict” between him and the gardaí, who may have seen him as a “little tearaway” at the time.
Mr O’Connell said that “even so”, Mr Gaffney was still entitled to the law’s full protection.
He said student Garda Patterson would say Garda O’Leary’s Kilmainham patrol car met Garda Conlon’s Kevin Street patrol car around Heuston rail station, where the two gardaí had a conversation with reference to a warrant for Basin Street flats.
He said the student garda would give evidence that both vehicles moved to the Basin Street flats and she followed the four gardaí to Mr Gaffney’s home.
Garda O’Leary, Garda Murtagh and Garda Conlon went upstairs after Ms Gaffney told them her son was in bed. She asked to see a warrant and Garda Delaney showed her a bit of paper.
Mr O’Connell said Ms Gaffney would say she would never have permitted gardaí to enter her home without a warrant.
The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of six men and six women.