A farmer who claimed he was "whacked" in the mouth by a garda during an incident at Dundalk Garda station was awarded damages of £18,000 by a jury at the High Court yesterday after they found he was assaulted by a garda.
Mr Eugene Martin (55), Corlea, Kingscourt, Co Cavan, had sued the State for damages for personal injuries arising out of the incident. In addition to the £18,000 damages awarded yesterday he also secured costs at the Circuit Court scale.
Mr Martin had claimed that, after he was taken to Dundalk Garda station on March 26th 1996, he had refused a request to put his money into a brown envelope.
He claimed that one garda had "busted" his mouth and that he ended up "with his teeth in his hands".
The jury hearing the action retired to consider their verdict yesterday. They were asked to decide whether Mr Martin had been assaulted by a member of the gardai at Dundalk station. The jury replied: "Yes."
In evidence, Mr Martin told Mr Justice Smith and the jury that he was stopped by gardai, who claimed he had been drinking while driving. He said he had had a few drinks, but had told gardai he was not drunk and, to demonstrate that, he had hopped up and down the street on one leg. He was brought to the station, where he was told to empty his pockets and throw his belongings into a brown envelope.
He said he told gardai he would not put his money into the envelope without it being checked in his presence. Two gardai grabbed him by the arms and one had said "You check nothing here", he claimed. He said he resented being brought to a cell and had been pulled there. A garda had come up to him and had "whacked" him in the mouth, bursting both his lips and breaking his dentures, he said.