A garda who broke another man's nose when he assaulted him in St Enda's GAA and Camogie Club in Ballyboden, Co Dublin, almost a year ago has been ordered to pay his victim £6,000 damages and costs.
When Judge Yvonne Murphy on Thursday heard conflicting views of the incident she adjourned her judgment until yesterday, suggesting both parties should get together one final time to resolve their differences.
Mr Michael Fletcher, a chef, of Woodlawn Park Grove, Firhouse, Co Dublin, told her that Garda Seamus Doherty of Castlefield, Knocklyon, head-butted and kicked him in an unprovoked attack in the clubhouse on August 10th last.
Garda Doherty said Mr Fletcher had failed to pay him a £20 bet on a GAA match and that when asked for the money he had spat in Garda Doherty's face and punched him.
When Mr Fletcher came at him a second time, the garda said, he struck him in self-defence. Mr Fletcher had fallen over a table and chair.
When talks failed to resolve the matter yesterday Judge Murphy told Mr Richard Humphreys, counsel for Mr Fletcher, that his client was entitled to succeed.
She said the objective medical evidence and that of two sisters, Mrs Anne Moloney and Mrs Dinah O'Connor, was consistent with Mr Fletcher's version of events.