A security guard who assaulted a man has been promoted by his employer, while a colleague who also admitted the assault won an award, a court heard yesterday.
In the Circuit Civil Court Judge Alison Lindsay heard from Garda John Doran that members of Delta Security had chased and assaulted a young man of Indian origin from the Ilac Centre, Parnell Street, Dublin, after he had attempted to use the toilets.
"Comments of a racial nature were made," Garda Doran said. "The victim was chased on to a nearby building site, knocked to the ground and kneed in the back before other building workers intervened."
The guards, John Kavanagh and Paul Fennell, admitted the assault on Mr Adhil Essalhi, a sheet metal worker, in August last year. But through their barristers, Mr Gerry Charleton and Mr John McCoy, both men denied having made any racist remarks.
In appealing against a prison sentence imposed on Kavanagh in the District Court, Mr Charleton said his client deeply regretted what he had done. He had since been promoted to a supervisory position with Delta.
Mr McCoy, for Fennell, said his client had obtained a security management award at the Dublin Institute of Technology and wished to join the prison service.
He wholly denied any racist motivation for the assault and apologised for his part in it.
Rejecting offers of £500 compensation from each of the accused as inappropriate, Judge Lindsay said the sentences had been somewhat harsh. She quashed them and applied the Probation Act.