Two brothers have been awarded €95,000 each by a High Court jury who found they had been maliciously prosecuted following their mistaken arrest in relation to an alleged handbag theft in Dublin city centre 16 years ago.
Italian Marco Gambucci, who runs a real estate business in Sardinia, and his brother Luca, a public servant in Perugia, sued Pearse Street in Dublin-based gardaí Daniel Barry and Jonathan Petrie as well as the Garda Commissioner and the State. They were living in Dublin at the time of the incident on May 18th, 2008, but have since returned to Italy.
The court heard they were arrested when gardaí were investigating an attempted handbag theft from a woman in Grafton Street.
The brothers claimed that after boarding the Luas at St Stephen’s Green, Garda Barry and Garda Petrie violently grabbed them and pulled them from the tram.
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They were then assaulted, violently pushed on to the pavement and handcuffed, they said.
They also claimed the gardaí, who were in plainclothes, never identified themselves but this was denied by the defendants.
They were put in a Garda van and, during the journey to Pearse Street, they were punched, slapped and kicked, they claimed. At the station, they claimed they were beaten and slapped again before being put in a cell.
They also said they were refused legal and medical assistance. After three hours, they were allowed a phone call and were released when two work colleagues came to the station and identified them.
The next day, the two gardaí went and spoke to the brothers and told them there had been a mistake and it was not their intention to harm them. It was also claimed they were told not to make a complaint or they would also be charged with assault.
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They had been charged with theft and when the case first came before the District Court it was indicated an assault charge was to follow. However, when the case came back before the court, the gardaí failed to turn up and the case against them was eventually struck out.
They say the decision to charge them with theft and the continuance of the case beyond a time when the gardaí knew they were never involved in the alleged offence was a malicious prosecution.
On Friday, following a two-week trial, a jury of eight women and four men, after just over three hours of deliberation, found the prosecution of the brothers was instituted and maintained for the improper purpose of dissuading them from seeking legal redress for their treatment by the gardaí.
They awarded Marco €95,000 and Luca €95,317 (inclusive of agreed special damages) for malicious prosecution.
The jury found the gardaí did not forcibly remove them from the Luas and did not honestly believe the case being made in prosecuting them for attempting to steal the woman’s handbag in Grafton Street.
The jury answered no to a question asking if the brothers had been assaulted.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens thanked the jury, exempted them from jury service for another 10 years and discharged them.
On the application of Mark Harty, for the defendants, the judge granted a stay on the award and on his order awarding 80 per cent of the legal costs to the brothers.
Afterwards, the brothers said they were very happy with the outcome and thanked their legal team, Darren Lehane SC, Ronan Lupton SC, Alistair Rutherdale and solicitor Thomas Rowley.
This was the second time the case was heard before the court. The previous hearing resulted in a hung jury and it was set down for retrial.
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