A NIGERIAN-born Irish citizen has been awarded €10,000 after a High Court jury found his arrest by gardaí at a roadside checkpoint was unjustifiable.
Sunny Akpabot (42), formerly of St Ronan’s Green, Clondalkin, Dublin, now living in Coventry, England, had claimed he was singled out to be stopped at the checkpoint because he was black.
He claimed gardaí unlawfully detained him and racially abused him.
Last night, a jury of eight women and four men found his arrest was unjustifiable but rejected his claim he was assaulted or that unreasonable and excessive force was used in the course of his arrest. The jury, after nearly three hours of deliberation, returned a majority verdict that his arrest was not justifiable and awarded him €6,000 in compensatory damages and €4,000 in exemplary damages.
The three-day trial heard the incident happened on January 9th, 2002, at Belgard Square North, Tallaght, as Mr Akpabot was driving home from work.
He told the court the first officer he met at the checkpoint, Garda Pádraig Harrington, said to him that because he was a garda he “could be a racist any day of the week he liked”.
The second officer, Garda Conor Harrison, tried to pull him by the neck out of the car when he went to complain about Garda Harrington’s alleged bullying behaviour, he said.
He got out of his car and was pulled to the ground by both gardaí, who knelt on his head and body before he was handcuffed, bundled into a squad car, hit and racially abused on his way to the station by a third officer, Garda Linda Kavanagh, he claimed.
The gardaí denied the claims and said no racist remarks or assault occurred. They said only reasonable force was used to arrest him.
Garda Harrison told the court his hand was caught inside the window of Mr Akpabot’s car and he was dragged along the road as the vehicle rolled away, causing his cap to fall off.
Afterwards, Mr Akpabot said it was not a massive sum, but he was very pleased with the outcome.