An off-duty detective, suffering from road rage "inappropriate to a member of An Garda Síochána", followed a bus driver and put her in fear for her safety, a judge ruled yesterday.
Judge Katherine Delahunt found that Det Garda Denis Kenny, Ronanstown, Dublin, later maliciously issued summonses against bus-driver Ms Denise Bohan as a bargaining tool to force her into dropping a complaint to the Garda Complaints Board about his behaviour.
In awarding Ms Bohan, of Bargy Road, East Wall, Dublin, €27,500 damages, she said the Minister for Justice and the State had connived with Garda Kenny in the malicious prosecution of alleged road traffic offences, subsequently abandoned and struck out in the District Court.
Judge Delahunt told Mr Mark De Blacam SC, counsel for Ms Bohan, that his client had claimed she had correctly pulled away from a bus stop while Det Garda Kenny alleged she had pulled out without warning and had made inappropriate finger gestures towards him.
He had followed her in his BMW to the terminus and approached her in a threatening manner, putting her in fear for her personal safety.
"I have no doubt Det Garda Kenny was exhibiting road rage inappropriate for a member of the Garda Síochána which was exacerbated by Ms Bohan's refusal to give him her name," Judge Delahunt said.
"Ms Bohan was not aware he was a member of An Garda Síochána and her behaviour was petulant and does not reflect well on her as a bus-driver."
Garda Kenny was an experienced garda of long standing and the court believed that on the day his behaviour had been sufficient to put Ms Bohan in fear. He had been oppressive and abusive and clearly Ms Bohan had suffered shock and trauma as a result.
Judge Delahunt said she was satisfied matters would have gone no further if Ms Bohan had not complained to the Garda Complaints Board as she had been perfectly entitled to do.
She did not accept that when Garda Kenny issued summonses for alleged road traffic offences that he had not been aware of the complaint to the Garda Complaints Board.
"I am satisfied this prosecution was malicious and that the summonses were only issued by Garda Kenny to use as a threat and a bargaining tool against Ms Bohan," she said. "This is borne out by the subsequent behaviour of the defendant and in particular in the meeting with Ms Bohan's solicitor."
Earlier the court had heard that Garda Kenny, in a "bizarre" meeting in the solicitor's office, had said he would drop the prosecution if Ms Bohan abandoned her complaint to the complaints board. Judge Delahunt said that up to this point the Minister and the State had some grounds for arguing that Garda Kenny had been acting outside the scope of his duty.
Through Ms Bohan's solicitor informing the Garda authorities of the meeting, the State had been made aware, three months before the summonses were due to be heard, that Garda Kenny had issued them and, having failed to intervene, had "connived" with him in their prosecution.
Judge Delahunt said Ms Bohan's post-traumatic and anxiety symptoms had been significant and awarded her €12,500 general damages along with €15,000 exemplary damages against Garda Kenny, the Minister and the State.
Exemplary damages exceed the amount necessary for simple compensation and are calculated to mark the court's disapproval of a defendant's behaviour.