A jury yesterday returned a verdict of not guilty in the trial of a Wexford garda charged with assaulting two colleagues in a Co Wexford pub on Easter Sunday, 2003.
Declan Dennehy (29), Lower John Street, Wexford, was cleared at Wexford Circuit Court of assault causing harm to Sinéad Sweeney, of Castlebridge, but stationed at Sundrive Road, Crumlin, Dublin, and assaulting Paul Cotter, who is stationed at Naas, Co Kildare.
Noel Whelan, prosecuting, alleged the assaults took place at the Centenary Stores disco/bar at around 1am on Easter Sunday.
It was claimed Mr Dennehy smashed a glass off Mr Cotter's head, from which a shard sliced a two to three centimetre laceration in Ms Sweeney's face above her left ear.
Yesterday the court heard from Mr Dennehy that he was not drunk on the night in question as alleged.
When asked by Mr Whelan if he was "very, very drunk" as Ms Sweeney alleged, he said: "No, that's impossible. I was captain of my team that year, and it was two weeks to a big championship match...We would've known not to be going around drunk."
The garda, who has been in Wexford for nine years, said he was out with his sister Sinead, brother Patrick and friend Mairead Lane in the back bar of The Stores when a man approached him, asking him where his girlfriend was.
He said he did not know this man. The man approached him again, asking him where Sandra (his then girlfriend) was.
The man approached Mr Dennehy one more time before Mr Dennehy moved farther down the bar as Ms Lane was getting disturbed by the situation.
Mr Dennehy said he saw Ms Sweeney with a group of people known to him about three feet away.
As he was making his way down through the pub, he stopped and said to Ms Sweeney: "Your wind up didn't work, Sweeney", as he had discovered that Ms Sweeney was the girlfriend of the man that had approached him.
Afterwards, as he was moving down the bar, Mr Dennehy noticed Mr Cotter following him. The group Mr Dennehy was in decided to go to the disco area, but Patrick Dennehy was "chatting up two blondes" so Mr Dennehy went up to get him.
It was then that Mr Dennehy noticed Mr Cotter coming towards him. "He was facing me, and saying something to me. The music was pumping. Then he went to push me. I held and he just swung at me with his left hand. I just ducked. It all happened in a matter of milliseconds.
"Then I brought my hands up. I had a pint glass in my hand. Patrick straight away moved out in front of him, and Cotter made another drive at me and Pat just held him. I moved down along the bar, and at that stage I realised the glass was broken."
A security man asked Mr Dennehy and his brother to leave through the fire exit door. (Mr Cotter had already been ejected through the main disco door).
Mr Dennehy said he did not know that Ms Sweeney had been injured until the following day when a friend working at the hospital in Wexford informed him.
In his closing statement, Mr Whelan said there could be few things as reckless as breaking a glass off somebody's head in a crowded pub. He pointed out that Sandra Stafford (nee Culleton), had given clear evidence that Mr Dennehy smashed a glass over Mr Cotter's head.
Robbie O'Neill, defending, said Ms Sweeney set up this case. "She was stirring things up. Ms Sweeney was the soberest person in Wexford according to them, and would have Mr Dennehy being drunker and drunker on the night."