Allegations that Bray gardaí cancelled four separate calls for an ambulance for two men who claimed that they were severely beaten while in Garda custody were rejected by the ambulance service yesterday.
Giving evidence at Bray District Court, Mr John Nolan, an operator at the ambulance service's Dublin call centre, said he was aware of four separate calls made shortly before and immediately after 8 a.m. on December 24th, 2000.
Because the first call was for an ambulance to attend Bray Garda station, the service had called the station to seek clarification.
However, no calls had been made by gardaí to the ambulance service, and after a second call, which was received at 7.55 a.m., an ambulance had been dispatched within 30 seconds and had collected the men within 11 minutes.
The men, Mr Paul Sinnott, of Dargle Road, Bray, and Mr Bill Sutton, of New Bride Street, Dublin, had been detained by gardaí after an altercation involving others on Quinnsboro Road in the early hours of that morning.
Arising out of that altercation the two had been charged with public order offences, breaching the peace and failing to comply with a direction of the gardaí. Mr Sinnott was also charged with assaulting Ms Cathy Bruen and a female garda on that date.
However, the hearing had been adjourned several times since then by Judge Murrough Connellan to allow the court to explore what he described yesterday as "very grave allegations" of beatings allegedly received by the men while in Garda custody.
Both men had made complaints to the Garda Complaints Board, which had sent a file on the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Among the allegations were that Mr Sutton, who is disabled and uses a crutch to walk, was repeatedly beaten and kicked, to the point where he lost control of his bowels. He also alleged that he had been denied access to a solicitor and to a doctor and had been abused physically as he left the station.
The allegations of physical abuse were repeated on a tape of the first call he made to the emergency services. However, gardaí said that the only request made by the men was for a specific solicitor at about 5.25 .m., and the men had been aggressive and very drunk when brought to the station.
Insp John Hand put it to one of the accused men that the injuries he claimed to have received were either as a result of reasonable efforts to restrain him while he was being abusive in custody or were the result of his earlier altercation at Quinnsboro Road.
Insp Hand said it was also clear that the gardaí had not contacted the ambulance services in the way alleged by the men.
Judge Connellan said that he expected to be in a position to give his verdict next Friday morning.