A GARDA who was prosecuted for slapping a woman three times in the face has had his case dismissed by a judge on a legal technicality.
The case was one of the first investigated by the office of the Garda Ombudsman Commission to go to court since the office was established in 2007.
Garda Shane Waldron (29) was before a special sitting of Galway District Court charged with the common assault of Emma Collins (27) at Eyre Square in the early hours of November 25th, 2007.
Garda Waldron, stationed at Oranmore in Co Galway, was before the court on a charge brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions following an investigation by the office of the Garda Ombudsman Commission.
However, defence solicitor Gearóid Geraghty, at the end of the prosecution case, sought a direction from Judge Leo Malone to dismiss the case.
Mr Geraghty argued that the prosecution had failed to provide proof of a necessary commencement order in respect of section 104 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, extending time for the preferring of the charge against his client. After considering the matter, Judge Malone agreed with the defence submission and dismissed the case.
Outside the court Ms Collins said she was “very, very disappointed” with the outcome of the case. However, she said she did not wish to comment any further.
Sara Robinson, senior investigating officer with the Garda Ombudsman Commission, said the details of the case would be examined.
“We’re satisfied we carried out a thorough investigation. It has fallen on a technicality and this will now be considered by the DPP and ourselves.”
In the court, Judge Malone was told that Ms Collins had been socialising with friends in Galway city on November 25th, 2007, and left a pub to go home around 2am.
She got into a taxi and asked the driver to stop at an ATM so that she could get some money.
Ms Collins got out of the taxi in Eyre Square and went to an ATM at a Bank of Ireland branch.
When she returned to the taxi, she found a man sitting in the passenger seat and his girlfriend standing alongside the front passenger seat.
Ms Collins asked the man to get out, but he asked her why she wouldn’t share the taxi.
She refused to tell Garda Waldron where she was going but at this stage Ms Collins said he began to shout at her.
Ms Collins said he told her he would find out where she lived and she shouted at him also.
“He then said ‘do you know who you are dealing with’. I told him ‘I don’t care who you are’ and he got out and walked around to where I was sitting in the back and pulled out a metal Garda badge.
“After shoving the Garda badge in my face, he hit me three times with the bottom part of his hand into my chin,” said Ms Collins. “I was in shock.”
She said the man walked away and his girlfriend began to apologise to her. “She said ‘oh my God, I’m so sorry’,” said Ms Collins.
Ms Collins said she got out and spotted a Garda sergeant nearby and made a complaint. She pointed out the man and the sergeant replied that she knew who he was.
Ms Collins said she later discovered that the inside of her lip was bleeding.
Ms Collins, under cross-examination, denied that Garda Waldron had simply shown her his badge to inform her that she had nothing to worry about while in the car with him as he was a garda.
She also rejected any suggestion that she had not been struck by him.
Taxi driver Carlito Felipe said that when the man approached the car, Mr Felipe said the man had asked him: “Do you know who I am?”
The taxi driver said that when Ms Collins returned to the car, she had asked him to get out and an argument had started.
The man got out of the car and went around to where she was sitting. “He started to beat her – he slapped her in the face,” said Mr Felipe.
Shane White, a designated officer with the Garda Ombudsman Commission, said he had recorded an interview with Garda Waldron at the commission offices in Dublin on February 28th last year. He had emphatically denied striking a female.
In response to other questions, he had replied that, as he was not obliged to say anything, he had taken legal advice not to respond.