Westport gardaí accused of assault

Youth claims Westport garda held belt up to his neck


A 16-year-old youth who appeared before Judge Mary Devins at last weeks sitting of Westport Children’s Court accused of public order offences controversially insisted that he was assaulted by a number of Westport gardaí following his arrest.
The youth, who was 15-years-old at the time of his arrest in Westport on February 25 said he was pushed up against the wall in the cell area after being brought from the public office area for a strip search.
The defendant told Judge Devins three gardaí were in the cell at the time of the alleged assault. He claimed after being brought from the public office to the cell area his trousers were subsequently taken down and his belt was held up to his neck by one garda while another garda held his arm up against the wall.
The youth’s mother allegedly entered the public office while the strip search was taking place and the youth said the Gardaí “‘were fairly mad’ when this was taking place. The youth’s mother alleges that after speaking to a garda in the public office she overheard the garda running down the corridor shouting, “Put him down, his mother’s here”.
Responding to the allegations against the gardaí Superintendent Michael Murray said they “were probably the most serious allegations I have heard as a prosecutor”. He subsequently asked the youth why, if the alleged incidents had taken place, had he not reported the alleged assault to the Garda Ombudsman.
The youth’s solicitor told the court the summonses were only received two weeks before the court sitting which he said was regrettable.
The arrest arose out of a disturbance in the Westport area when a woman complained that a number of youths had thrown eggs at the windows of her house. After Garda Tony McCabe attended the scene he was pointed in the direction of a number of youths in the vicinity of the house. He subsequently directed that they leave the area under the Public Order Act and he told them that if they refused they would be committing an offence.
However, the youth insisted he arrived just before Garda McCabe’s direction and he strenuously denied being involved in the egg-throwing incidents. Under cross examination the mother of the youth said she had received a call to attend Westport Garda Station ‘about fifteen minutes’ after she dropped him off.
The youth’s solicitor said this would have given his client very little time to have engaged in the public order incident. After being directed to leave the youth said that he was going to collect chips and Garda McCabe said he decided to give him ‘the benefit of the doubt’.
Minutes later, the youth said he looked out to see if Garda McCabe was gone and the court heard another direction was issued by the Westport-based garda to leave the area.
Garda McCabe told the court it was on the ‘fifth or sixth’ occasion of repeating this direction that the youth was then arrested.
The youth’s mother told Supt Murray that due to the long list of pending charges against him she didn’t think it would have ‘helped’ her son to have contacted the Ombudsman at that time. She said she had a good relationship with the gardaí prior to this and she said she always found them to be professional and approachable.
Judge Devins said she would like to view CCTV from both the location of the alleged public order incident and the Garda Station before considering the evidence and making a decision. She adjourned the case until October 13.