A man yesterday told Cork Circuit Criminal Court he was assaulted by a garda in an unmarked patrol car following his arrest on suspicion of drink driving after he left a nightclub where he had had an earlier altercation with the garda and a colleague.
Roy O'Donoghue (27) alleged Garda Jason Wallace assaulted him in a patrol car driven by Garda John Alfred on the way to Clonakilty Garda station after his arrest on September 6th, 2004.
Garda Wallace, with an address c/o Kinsale Garda station, and Garda Alfred, c/o Bandon Garda station, have denied the charge of assault causing harm to Mr O'Donoghue.
Yesterday, Mr O'Donoghue said he had gone over to Garda Alfred, who was going out with his ex-partner, Tara Mukerjee, in Emmet Hotel nightclub after a man he wrongly thought was Garda Wallace fell against a friend of his and there was a verbal exchange.
He later drove his cousin, Eoin McCarthy, to his flat but when he arrived there an unmarked patrol car pulled up and Garda Wallace got out, arrested him and put him in the back seat and sat next to him while Garda Alfred drove.
Mr O'Donoghue, who drank nine to 10 pints that night, insisted he had not resisted arrest. It was only after the patrol car was out of view of Mr McCarthy that Garda Wallace began to assault him.
"I got a blow to my ear and I got a blow to my head - I asked what that was for and I got more blows - I didn't play up or nothing ... I had to put my head in my lap ... to protect myself in the back of the car ... I was covered in blood," he said.
Cross-examined by Pat McCarthy SC, defending, Mr O'Donoghue conceded he made no reference to being involved in a fight earlier in the night with Colin Dumigan in a field in Clonakilty in the first two statements he gave gardaí on November 10th, 2004 and January 10th, 2005.
He said he did not mention the earlier fight because he did not want to get Mr Dumigan and others present at that fight into trouble and he only mentioned the earlier fight in a statement on September 20th, 2005 after he rang the others and told them to tell the whole truth.
He said he had suffered a bruise to his left eye and a bloody nose in the fight with Mr Dumigan but he cleaned himself up and later went to his cousin's flat to clean up again and looked presentable when he went to the nightclub.
Mr O'Donoghue strongly denied he had issued a solicitor's letter threatening to sue the two gardaí. "This isn't about money at all - this is about right and wrong. Guards can't go around doing this sort of thing to people," he told the jury of seven men and five women.
Mr O'Donoghue admitted that he had been violent towards his ex-partner, Ms Mukerjee, on two occasions and she had obtained a protection order against him. He said, however, they were still getting on when they split up in summer 2004. The case continues today.
