WITNESSES TO a Garda search at the Cork home of a man who became ill and died shortly gave evidence at the continuing inquest yesterday.
David O’Mahony (22), from Mayfield, Cork, suffered a seizure while being restrained by gardaí as they searched his rented home in McSwiney Villas, Gurranebraher, four years ago.
Michael Reen, a school friend, said he, Mr O’Mahony and another friend, David Butt, had spent the previous night drinking and taking cocaine. They also visited a lapdancing club. They returned to the city to buy alcohol at 7.30am on November 14th, 2007, the day Mr O’Mahony died.
They bought 12 cans of Heineken and a bottle of vodka and continued drinking through the day. They also took about a gramme of cocaine each during the binge – “a normal amount”, Mr Reen said.
They finished the cocaine about an hour before five gardaí arrived at the house to conduct a drugs search at about 7pm.
Mr Reen’s evidence about how Mr O’Mahony was restrained differed from that of Shane O’Mahony, a brother of the deceased, who gave evidence on Monday.
Mr Reen said gardaí “pinned” Mr O’Mahony “belly down” on a couch, with one garda kneeling on his lower back, another garda using his hands on the back of Mr O’Mahony’s neck and two other gardaí holding his arms.
He said the gardaí only placed one handcuff on Mr O’Mahony and were struggling to get his left arm out from under his body.
He did not recall Mr O’Mahony breathing heavily and he said that he suffered one seizure, not two as his brother had described.
Mr Butt did not recall seeing gardaí handcuff Mr O’Mahony, as he was brought upstairs to be searched. He did recall seeing a number of gardaí restraining his friend face down.
“He was face down on the couch. There were three guards on top of him, on his shoulders, on his legs; they were all over him,” Mr Butt said. He told the inquest that all three men in the house told gardaí to “get off him”. “The way they were handling him, it was just wrong.”
The inquest continues today, when evidence from paramedics and emergency services will be heard.
