Garda sergeant injured when pulled down aircraft steps by asylum seeker awarded €87,950

A garda sergeant, who was injured when pulled down the steps of an aircraft at Dublin Airport by a man seeking asylum, was awarded just under €88,000 damages against the State today by Ms Justice Leoni Reynolds.

Sergeant Michael Griffin told a Garda Compensation hearing in the High Court that in April 2010 when head of an immigration unit he had noticed a man who failed to join any of the immigration queues at the airport and when spoken to had said his documentation was still on the aircraft.

“I accompanied him back to the air bridge of the aircraft from which he had disembarked and he dropped what appeared to be a passport,” Sergeant Griffin said. “I had just picked it up when I was set upon and pulled down the metal steps, striking my back and right arm and shoulder.”

Barrister Esther Earley, counsel for Griffin, of Willsbrook Road, Lucan, Co Dublin, told Judge Reynolds that almost 13 years after the incident Sergeant Griffin could not engage in heavy lifting and is frequently wakened in bed at night by ongoing pain in his shoulder.

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Ms Earley, who appeared with Keira O’Reilly of Keans Solicitors, said the assailant had afterwards been charged with assault and had been sentenced to six months in prison.

She said Sergeant Griffin, who had since taken up administrative duties had at the time of the attack been assisted in restraining the man by members of the US Border Patrol.

Ms Earley said the man who attacked Sergeant Griffin, now aged 49, had been travelling to Ireland on a stolen passport which had fallen from his pocket as he was accompanied back to the aircraft.

“He attacked Sergeant Griffin very severely and knocked him backwards on the steps causing him significant injuries to his back, right arm and right shoulder,” she said.

She told Judge Reynolds that the most significant injury was a tear to the tendons of Sergeant Griffin’s right shoulder which had failed to recover despite injections and two instances of surgery followed by physiotherapy.

In the end, she said, Sergeant Griffin had decided to suffer the pain and get on with his career and his life, returning to office administrative work and never returning to front line duties.

Judge Reynolds said Sergeant Griffin, who at the time had children of a tender age, had suffered a very nasty assault and had suffered a number of setbacks during treatment. He was required to engage in an ongoing extended exercise programme.

The judge awarded him €55,000 for pain and distress to date and a further €20,000 for pain and suffering into the future together with €12,951 special damages, a total of €87,951 and his costs.