A Dublin woman was locked in a bathroom while her son was beaten by four gardai who attacked him as he slept in bed, a court heard today.
Owen Gaffney needed hospital treatment after he was hit with batons and kicked and punched by officers who forced their way into his home in Basin Street in Dublin, it was claimed.
Four gardaí - Alan Conlon, Claire Delaney, Eoin Murtagh and Sean O’Leary - are on trial accused of assault causing harm to Mr Gaffney, as well as forcible entry and trespass at the family home in the south inner city on February 17th, 2008.
Gda Conlon, Gda Delaney and Gda Murtagh are also accused of the false imprisonment of Mr Gaffney’s mother Fidelma in a bathroom of her Basin Street flat. They have pleaded not guilty to each of the charges.
Opening the case for the prosecution at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Tom O’Connell, Senior Counsel, told the jury the case was about members of An Garda Siochána acting unlawfully.
He said it was the prosecution’s case that the gardaí arrived in numbers without a search or arrest warrant and forced their way in to Mrs Gaffney’s flat. He claimed Mr Gaffney was kicked and punched by all four gardaií and beaten with a baton by Gda O’Leary and Gda Murtagh.
“In the course of the assault on Owen Gaffney, his mother was in there in the beginning of the assault and then she was forcibly taken from the bedroom and she was put in the bathroom and the door was held shut by various members,” he added.
Gda Conlon was stationed at Kevin Street station at the time, while the other three were stationed in Kilmainham.
Mr O’Connell said three other gardaí who were not involved in the alleged pre-arranged assault but were at the flat will give evidence during the trial, adding that an attempt had been made to suppress their knowledge.
He told the court witnesses will claim Gda O’Leary lifted Mr Gaffney’s duvet and hit him over the head with a baton while another garda kicked him in the head as his mother watched.
Someone then grabbed Mrs Gaffney by the throat, forced her into the bathroom and held the lever handle up for about five minutes, Mr O’Connell alleged.
The prosecutor said a friend of Mr Gaffney’s had called his mother when he saw the gardaí entering the flat and recorded the incident on his mobile phone. A copy of the recording, which lasted almost two minutes, was later handed over to the Garda Ombudsman which investigated the Gaffneys’ complaints.
Medics later noted a bruise on Mr Gaffney’s head, swelling to his nose which had been bleeding, bruising to the front and back of his upper body and a superficial laceration on his right upper arm when he arrived at St James’s Hospital.
Investigators also photographed blood on Mr Gaffney’s bed, radiator, wall and bedroom door, Mr O’Connell added.
The jury also heard forensic tests will show blood stains on a baton owned by Murtagh was a million to one times more likely to be a mix of DNA from Owen Gaffney and Eoin Murtagh than from the victim and someone else.
Mr O’Connell told the jury: “What the prosecution will be asking you to do at the end of the day is infer from DNA evidence that Garda Murtagh was involved in the assault on Owen Gaffney.”
The barrister revealed there had been conflict between gardaí and Mr Gaffney, who had a history of public order offences, with an altercation the night before the incident. “At the time he was a little tearaway when one looks at his criminal convictions,” he added. “But even so he was still entitled to the full protection of the law and to be dealt with in full accordance of the law.”
The trial continues tomorrow.
PA