A mother of two was terrified when an armed garda response unit burst into her home and handcuffed her and her naked partner on their bedroom floor, the Circuit Civil Court has heard.
Mary Foran alleged that the gun carrying gardaí at first refused to allow her to go to the toilet and that she wet herself in fear.
Judge Francis Comerford, awarding Ms Foran and her partner Tony Boyle a total of €38,000 damages against the State, said armed men entering their home at Abercorn Road, East Wall, Dublin, had presented as “a great threat.”
He told Ray Comyn SC that the handcuffing of the couple could not be justified.
Judge Comerford, in a reserved judgment, also awarded €23,000 damages to Vickey Foran, whose home at West Road, East Wall, was also forcibly entered and searched by the armed response unit.
The court heard she “was almost naked” and on her way to the bathroom when the armed men burst in. She was ordered to lie on her bedroom floor. Before lying down, in response to a question as to who was under the duvet, she pulled it back to reveal her two youngest children underneath.
Gun pointed
Downstairs her daughter, Hayleigh, was dressing for school when the armed gardaí “burst into her room.” They had pointed a gun at her and directed her to lie on the ground, asking where her brother was. She replied that he was upstairs and said “leave him alone he is only 12.”
When the four children were reunited with their mother, Hayleigh handed her mother a dressing gown.
The court heard that the armed gardaí had been looking for “a dangerous individual” and when they failed to find him at the homes of Mary Foran and Mr Boyle and of Vickey Foran they proceeded to search the home of Zakari Biassall (48), also on Abercorn Road.
Mr Biassall, whose home had been searched on the basis that a car registered to “the dangerous individual” had been parked nearby, was awarded €22,000 damages. He had been naked from the waist down and had also been forced to lie on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Hardworking citizens
The searches of all three houses revealed nothing. The court heard all the plaintiffs were “decent hardworking citizens who were not suspected of any wrongdoing whatsoever.”
All of the plaintiffs, whose homes were raided at around 6.50 am on November 25th, 2009, claimed damages for negligence and trespass causing them “intimidation, harassment, humiliation, distress, anxiety and upset.”
The court had been told it was “common case” that the gardaí had no lawful authority to forcibly enter their dwellings.
Mr Comyn applied for and was granted full legal costs for all of the plaintiffs and, together with the State’s legal bill, this will cost the taxpayer some €200,000 on top of the damages awards of €83,000.
Ronnie Robins SC, counsel for the State, who appeared with barrister Peter Shanley, was granted a stay on damages and costs to facilitate consideration of an appeal on Judge Comerford’s orders to the High Court.