Builder (33) found guilty of imitating a garda when trying to coerce woman into car

A builder has been convicted of trying to get a woman into his car in the middle of the night by pretending to be a garda and intimidating her.

Declan McGowan (33) told gardaí that he pulled up alongside the woman who was walking on the Kimmage Road Lower in Dublin on the night of September 18th last because he thought she was in danger.

Andra Calauz told the trial that she was on the phone having an argument with her husband who was in their nearby home.

McGowan told her he was a garda and had a gun in the car. He told her she was beautiful, took her hand and kissed it and hugged her. She said she felt frightened and pressurised by McGowan, who repeatedly told her to get into his car.

Her husband Daniel Ion said that when he arrived at the scene, McGowan started choking him with one hand and Ms Calauz began crying. Mr Ion said McGowan was shouting at him to go back inside to his children or he would call Tusla and they would be taken away.

‘A dangerous man’

He said McGowan was “screaming” at his wife to get into the car. He said suspected that McGowan was either a corrupt garda or “a dangerous man”. He said he told McGowan two or three times to let his wife go and that, whatever happened, she should not get into the car. Mr Ion called gardaí­ who arrived within minutes and arrested McGowan.

McGowan, of Branswood, Athy, Co Kildare, had pleaded not guilty to the attempted coercion of Ms Calauz, assaulting her, impersonating a member of An Garda Síochána and assaulting Mr Ion causing him harm.

After a four day trial, a jury took just under three hours to return guilty verdicts on all four counts.

Judge Patricia Ryan thanked jurors for their time and remanded McGowan in continuing custody until June 17th, when a sentence hearing will take place.

After his arrest, McGowan told gardaí­ that Ms Calauz had told him that she was in danger, that her husband kept her locked in the apartment and she did not want to go back. The couple denied these suggestions in their evidence.

McGowan told gardaí­ that Mr Ion arrived on the scene and struck his wife in the face and claimed he only restrained him to prevent him from further attacking the woman.

‘Massive language barrier’

He said that he never told anyone he was a garda and said this may have been a misunderstanding because of a “massive language barrier”. He denied ever kissing or hugging the woman.

Defence counsel Garnet Orange SC told the jury that the only thing his client did wrong was to make a foolish decision to act “the good Samaritan”.

“He made the critical mistake of placing himself between a husband and wife,” counsel said.

John Moher BL, prosecuting, said that McGowan’s account was fantastical. He said that when the defendant’s efforts to get the woman into his car were interrupted by her husband’s arrival “he flew into a rage” and assaulted the man.