A member of An Garda Siochana has gone on trial in Dublin charged with assault causing harm to a protestor at a 'Reclaim the Streets' march on Dame Street in May 2002.
Garda Paul Tallon of Mountjoy Station, Dublin has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Fergal Leddy causing him harm on May 6, 2002.
Mr Leddy (34), of Richmond Hill, Rathmines told the court that someone hit him on the crown of his head with a baton as he was trying to assist a fellow protestor whom he said "one garda seemed to be strangling."
Mr Leddy said he went to the aid of a protestor who was shouting to be let go but the garda was not responding. He said he first appealed verbally to the garda who was holding the protestor but when that did not have any affect he tried to come between the two of them.
"The next thing I was aware of was that I was on the ground and there were blows raining on me," Mr Leddy told prosecuting counsel, Mr O'Connell.
He said he shouted that he was not resisting and within a minute or two he was back in the crowd, his head bleeding profusely from the back of his head. He had been hit on the back of his head and his shoulder.
Mr Leddy said his head, which had been cut at the back from the blow, was very sore and the bleeding did not stop until some time afterwards. He also suffered from headaches for a few weeks after the attack.
He said he would be "very hard put" to describe the garda whom he saw hitting him when he was lying on the ground because he had his head in his hands and only caught glimpses of him.
The trial is expected to continue for three to four days before Judge Yvonne Murphy.