FOUR GARDAÍ have been acquitted of forcing entry to a flat on Basin Street in Dublin, trespass and assaulting a teenage occupant. The jury took seven hours to return all verdicts on the 25th day of the trial.
Gardaí Alan Conlon, Garda Eoin Murtagh, Garda Claire Delaney and Garda Seán O’Leary had pleaded not guilty to forcing entry at a Basin Street Upper premises, entering as a trespasser and assaulting Owen Gaffney (now 21) on February 17th, 2008.
Garda Murtagh, Garda Conlon and Garda Delaney had also pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of the young man’s mother, Fidelma Gaffney, on the same occasion.
The jury unanimously acquitted the four gardaí of forcing entry and trespass and found Garda Conlon, Garda Delaney and Garda Murtagh unanimously not guilty of false imprisonment.
Garda Delaney was unanimously acquitted of assault causing harm and Garda Murtagh, Garda O’Leary and Garda Conlon were found not guilty of the same charge by majority verdict.
Judge Desmond Hogan thanked the six men and six women of the jury for being “most attentive” in the case and said it was “no easy task to sit in judgment on one’s fellow human being”.
During the trial, Gaffney said Garda O’Leary hit him on the head with a baton and Garda Murtagh also went to hit him with a baton but he blocked it with his arm.
He said he was then hit “from all over the place, from every angle”.
Gaffney said he was taken to the other side of the room while “half knocked out” and set down on a sofa. He said a garda told him “three seconds”, then Garda Murtagh kicked him in the face with his boot.
He said he was kicked in the chin by Garda Murtagh but agreed he did not sustain an injury.
Gaffney, who is currently serving a sentence for stealing a nun’s car, denied that he had been the aggressor in the incident, that he was out of control and that Garda Conlon had sought to assist his colleagues in restraining him.
He denied that he had been very violent and spat at the gardaí during the alleged incident.
The jury heard that Gaffney had a number of previous convictions, including one for assaulting a garda, but he did not accept during the trial that he had broken the garda’s jaw during the course of that attack.
Gaffney agreed during the trial that he had instructed a solicitor to take a civil action on his behalf and that he sued for injuries he received in the alleged beating.
Gaffney remains in custody.
During the trial his mother said she was grabbed by the throat and arm and forced into the bathroom for about five minutes after she had seen two uniformed gardaí beat her son as he lay in bed.
Ms Gaffney said she had asked to see a warrant when gardaí arrived at her door and was shown a piece of paper briefly by one garda as they walked past her into her home.
Garda Katherine Patterson, then a student garda, said she saw Garda Delaney hold up a piece of paper to a woman who had opened the door and asked for a warrant.
Ms Gaffney said she bought a disposable camera in a nearby Spar shop and took pictures of her son after the incident and before his father took him to hospital.
After the verdicts yesterday, a Garda Ombudsman spokesman, Graham Doyle, said outside court: “The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission did what it was set up to do.
“We gathered the evidence and brought it to the appropriate forum for adjudication.
“That was our job in this as it is in all cases. One of our functions is to promote public confidence in the police oversight system and having these cases decided upon in open court should add to that confidence.”