A DETAINEE in Longford Garda station was told to remove his trousers and underpants and had his privates “inspected” by gardaí, a judge has been told.
Mr Justice Matthew Deery heard it was one of a litany of humiliating experiences gardaí put Paraic Brady through after a squad of nine had turned up to arrest him and search his home for evidence.
Mr Brady told the Circuit Civil Court he had been woken in his bed on April 19th, 2004, by Det Garda Jim Campbell and told to get dressed and was arrested, handcuffed and taken outside to a Garda car in the full gaze of neighbours.
Barrister Ronan Kennedy said Mr Brady, who suffered from depression, had never been charged with any crime despite gardaí suspecting him of having harassed a former neighbour in a letter.
A file had been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions but was not acted on.
Mr Brady’s elderly mother, Anna, outlined to the judge how she stood in her nightclothes on the landing, watching gardaí brush past her husband Patrick (since deceased) and ignore his inquiry as to whether they had a search warrant.
She said she had gone back to her bedroom while six gardaí carried out a search of the Brady home at Denniston Park, Granard, Co Longford.
“They must have been there for up to five hours. The place was in bedlam and when they had finished the house looked as if it had been hit by a bomb,” she told the judge.
Paraic Brady sued the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner for assault and false imprisonment, as well as trespass.
Det Garda Campbell (now retired), who had led the arrest and search team, told the court he had not obtained a search warrant.
He had been investigating the alleged harassment of a former neighbour of Mr Brady’s.
He said she had received letters of a pornographic nature.
Mr Brady said he had been interviewed in the Garda station. Some of it was videotaped but sometimes the video would be switched off.
He said he had been humiliated and degraded by gardaí. He claimed he had been told to lower his pants and underpants, and his privates had been “looked at” by a number of gardaí in the cell, which he had been told was “routine”.
The judge heard Mr Brady’s computer, discs and music CDs, as well as other personal items, including photographs and a camera, had been seized by members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who were part of the Garda search squad.
Following a two-day hearing, in which gardaí denied claims of any wrongdoing, the judge was told yesterday that Mr Brady’s €38,000 claim had been settled and could be struck out with an order covering his legal costs.