The trial has begun of three gardaí accused of assault during a Reclaim the Streets march two years ago.
Garda Ronan Judge and Garda Thomas Victory of Store Street station, and Garda Paul Daly from Pearse Street station, deny assaulting Mr Rory McMonagle (23), of Neville Road, Rathgar, on May 6th, 2002.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Mr McMonagle, who was a Trinity College student at the time, received six stitches in the head after being hit with batons during the protest.
Mr McMonagle was one of several hundred people who moved from Burgh Quay onto College Green on the evening of the protest.
He told the jury that gardaí were aggressively pushing people from the street onto the pavement on College Green, and in his opinion, they did so "without proper consideration" of those already on the pavement.
Mr McMonagle said this caused a lot of people to be squashed and fall over each other. He said he saw a young woman lying on the ground in a foetal position as "gardaí were stampeding on her". He said out of concern for the woman he pushed a garda away from her.
"Then about six gardaí were hitting me with their batons," Mr McMonagle told the jury of eight men and four women. He said although he did not fall to the ground, he kept his head down as gardaí hit him on the head, arms and legs.
Mr McMonagle said five or six seconds later a more senior gardaí, who appeared to think that his colleagues' attack was "getting out of hand" put a stop to it. When he put his hand to his head he realised it was bleeding.
He then stood there for a while with his blood-covered hand out-stretched, saying to the gardaí: "Look what you have done."
Mr McMonagle said he would not be able to identify any of the gardaí who hit him because it happened very quickly and he was protecting his face with his arms.
Opening the case to the jury, Mr John O'Kelly SC said it will hear from witnesses who had been at the scene of the alleged assault and that it would also be shown a video compilation of footage recorded by cameras on board garda helicopters and by private individuals.
Mr O'Kelly said the jury will also hear from senior members of An Garda Siochána who would identify officers seen in the said videos.
The hearing is expected to resume tomorrow before Judge Yvonne Murphy and the jury after legal argument in its absence.