A MAN arrested with Dwayne Foster, who was being held for questioning about the fatal shooting of a young woman when he was found unresponsive in a Garda station, has told an inquest that he saw Foster being punched at the time of his arrest.
Foster (24), Woodbank Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, was discovered unresponsive in Coolock Garda station on March 7th, 2006. He was taken to Beaumont Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He was being questioned in relation to the shooting of Donna Cleary (22), who was shot dead at a party early on March 5th, 2006.
A postmortem by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis found he died from methadone intoxication and noted that 34 injuries on Foster’s body were caused by blunt force trauma.
Solicitor for the Foster family Michael Finucane has accepted that not all of the injuries were caused during the arrest.
Wayne Hart, who was arrested with Foster and Jeffrey Finnegan on March 5th at a house in the Curragh, Co Kildare, said gardaí entered the room where they were sitting and pushed them to the ground and put pillowcases, or something like pillowcases, over their heads.
They were handcuffed, he added.
“They came in and pushed us to the ground,” said Mr Hart, who was giving evidence at a resumed inquest into the death of Mr Foster.
He told Dublin City Coroner’s Court that he saw Foster being punched once at the back of his neck around his ear after he (Mr Hart) moved the cover over his head.
Mr Hart told the court he himself was kicked in the face because he moved and that his lip was “busted” and bleeding, but it was not a “full force kick”.
Asked by Stephen Byrne, for the Garda, how he was able to move the cover over his head given his hands were behind his back and handcuffed, Mr Hart said he shook his head and it came off a little bit. It was then replaced.
The pillowcases were removed as they were being led from the house, said Mr Hart, who was taken to Coolock Garda station and placed in a cell opposite Foster. Mr Hart was moved to another Garda station the next day.
According to gardaí who were involved in the arrests, nothing was placed over the heads of the detainees.
The inquest heard that Det Sgt Cormac Brennan, who was involved in the investigation into Ms Cleary’s death, had a warrant to search the house in relation to a firearm.After entering the room, Det Sgt Brennan went to Foster and Det Garda Brian Hanley went to Det Sgt Brennan’s assistance as Foster “was resisting and continued to struggle”, said Det Garda Hanly.
The gardaí pushed Foster to his knees.
The two were assisted by Det Garda Joseph Enright, who pulled Foster’s legs out and got him down on the ground.
“He was twisting and turning trying to break free,” said Det Garda Enright.
Foster was then handcuffed.
Det Garda Hanley told the inquest that at no stage did he mistreat Foster nor did he see any members of the Garda mistreat him.
“All the force used was reasonable and necessary,” he said.
Giving evidence on Monday, Det Sgt Brennan said Mr Foster resisted arrest and said the force used by gardaí was proportionate to overcome the resistance offered by Foster.
The inquest continues today.