A Garda accused of assaulting a protester at the 2002 "Reclaim the Streets" march in Dublin has claimed he was justified in striking a protester three times in the "upper body" but denies he ever hit a protester on the head.
Garda Paul Tallon, of Mountjoy station, Dublin, insisted on day seven of his trial at the Circuit Criminal Court that he did not hit protester Mr Fergal Leddy on the head and said he was satisfied that the person he did strike with his baton was not hit on the head.
Garda Tallon has pleaded not guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Leddy on May 6th, 2002.
He refused to confirm that the person seen striking a protester in aerial video footage was him and would only say: "I accept that it is a possibility that the person is me.
"I am admitting that I did use my baton against a protester that day," he said, but insisted he struck the person in the "upper body" not the head. "The person I hit, I hit on the upper body, the person I hit did not bleed. I did not hit a person on the head," he added.
"I didn't think I had done anything wrong that day. As far as I was concerned, all I had done was protect a colleague," he said under cross-examination. He felt he had acted "within the regulations of the law" and told Mr Thomas O'Connell SC, prosecuting, "Yes, I was justified in my actions, yes."
He accepted that nobody had given him an order to draw his baton that day or that anyone blew a whistle to signal permission to draw batons. Earlier the court heard that under Garda regulations members may draw their batons on a disorderly crowd without the permission of an officer if they believe themselves likely to be overpowered.
He told his defence counsel, Mr Martin Giblin SC, that he came on patrol as a plainclothes garda with the Street Crime Unit at 6 p.m. that evening and answered an "urgent assistance call" from gardaí at the scene on Dame Street.
When he arrived he saw a group of "about three or four hundred people running about chaotically and a small number of gardaí". The scene appeared to be one of "disorder" with "gardaí in isolated pockets trying to control the situation".
He told Mr Giblin he used his baton in two incidents that evening. In the first incident he said he used his baton to warn off a protester who "swung a punch" at him. In the second incident, he admitted he struck a protester three times.
"I saw a colleague in grave difficulty, there was a protester who had him by the neck," said Garda Tallon. "There was a crowd approaching both of us. I went over to intervene, I feared the garda had no way to defend himself," he said.
"I came from behind the person that was holding the guard by the neck. I held on to the person's shirt and told him to let go twice," said Garda Tallon.
"The garda concerned could not defend himself. I felt I had no other option but to draw my baton and use it," the court heard.
When Mr Giblin asked him why he used it, Garda Tallon replied: "In order for him to release his grip from the guard.
"I initially struck him once on the upper arm. When he didn't let go I hit him another time," he said, adding that he struck the protester a third time.
He said he then put the protester on the ground in order to arrest him for assaulting a garda but due to the "aggressive demeanour" of the approaching crowd he released the man, who ran off into the crowd.
Under cross-examination by prosecuting counsel Mr O'Connell, Garda Tallon said he was "not 100 per cent certain that Mr Leddy is the person" he struck on May 6th, 2002.
The case continues today.