Two gardaí have gone on trial charged with assault causing harm to a man in an unmarked Garda car while bringing him to the local police station after they arrested him on suspicion of drink driving.
Jason Wallace with an address c/o Kinsale Garda station and John Alfred with an address c/o Clonakilty Garda station both deny a charge of assault causing harm to Roy O'Donoghue between Youghal, Clonakilty and Clonakilty Garda station on September 6th, 2004.
Yesterday, Don McCarthy, prosecuting, outlined what will be the State's case against both accused men to the jury of seven men and five women when the trial opened at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr McCarthy said that Mr O'Donoghue was drinking in a pub in Clonakilty on September 5th, 2004 when he got into a row with another man over a game of pool and he and the man went to a field to fight over the winnings and Mr O'Donoghue received a bloody nose.
The State will say, he added, that Mr O'Donoghue went back to his car and cleaned himself up and changed some of his clothing before going to a friend's house, cleaning himself up further and then going to another pub and from there on to a disco.
There was an exchange at the disco with one of the accused after somebody bumped into somebody else and Mr O'Donoghue left to drive to a friend's house but as he arrived at the house, he was arrested by gardaí.
Garda Wallace arrested Mr O'Donoghue on suspicion of drink driving and put him in the back of a squad car while Garda Alfred drove the car with the prisoner to Clonakilty Garda station, he said.
"In the course of that journey he [Mr O'Donoghue] was struck in the back seat, not once but a number of times by Garda Jason Wallace.
"He had a bloodied nose, bruising of the ear and bruising to his face. He was rendered in such distress that he started crying," he said.
Mr McCarthy said the State will say Garda Alfred did not lay a finger on Mr O'Donoghue but it will say that the assault went on so long in the back of the car that he could have stopped it but didn't and by his inaction, he too had an involvement.
The State will say that when Mr O'Donoghue arrived at Clonakilty Garda station he was in a bloody state, that "his nose was bleeding and that he showed signs of having been struck" said Mr McCarthy.
The trial is expected to go into evidence today.
