Westport man cleared of causing harm to off-duty garda

Westport man cleared of causing harm to off-duty garda


A WESTPORT man who admitted striking an off-duty garda with a safety blade during a row last year was found not guilty by a jury of assault causing harm at last week’s sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr David Gibbons (19) of 18 Cloonmonad Close, Westport, was charged with assault causing harm against Kevin Higgins (36), at the Octagon, Westport in the early hours of December 1, 2007. Mr Gibbons pleaded not guilty to the offence but during his evidence he admitted that he cut Mr Higgins with a safety blade after going into a rage when he claimed that Mr Higgins hit his mother in the forehead. After just 40 minutes of deliberation, the jury of eight men and four women found Mr Gibbons not guilty of the offence.
Mr Kevin Higgins – a garda stationed in Cabra, with eleven years service – told the court that he drove to Westport on Friday, November 30, to meet with some colleagues for their Christmas party. Having had a number of drinks in local pubs, he went to a night club, but decided to leave early, because he wanted to get up early the next day to visit his father in Galway. He said he went towards the Octagon and saw a young man and woman struggling. He said he thought a girl was being assaulted and he grabbed the male off the girl. He claimed that when he went to check on the girl he felt a thump on the left side of his head and he fell on the kerb.
He said the next he remembered was a man on top of him pushing something towards him. He said he kicked him off but realised his head was bleeding and blood was going into his eyes. He said he was slightly dazed and remembered a patrol car arriving and speaking to a female garda.
Under cross-examination by Mr Eoin Garavan BL, for Mr Gibbons, Mr Higgins denied that he attacked Mr Gibbons or his mother and that he was the instigator of the assault. He said he didn’t remember everything after hitting the kerb and claimed a lot of what happened after that was a blur.
David Gibbons told the court he finished work in Tescos at 9.50pm on November 30 and went to the pub straight afterwards. He claimed he was there until closing time and asked his mother to collect him at the Octagon. When he was waiting at the Octagon he met Martina Kelly and they were talking for a while, when a man passed and they said ‘hi’ to him.
He said the man was Kevin Higgins and claimed he approached them and grabbed Ms Kelly by the wrist and twisted it. Mr Gibbons said he went to stop him but claimed that Mr Higgins grabbed him by the throat and they started wrestling. He said his mother arrived and tried to separate them and Mr Higgins grabbed her by the hair and threw a punch at her.
He said he ‘went for him again’ and took out a safety blade which he had in his pocket from work and struck Mr Higgins with it at least twice. He denied that he had attacked anyone and said he was only waiting for a lift home.
Under cross-examination from Mr John Jordan BL, for the State, he admitted that he got annoyed as a result of Mr Higgins hitting his mother and that he took the blade out and hit Mr Higgins out of rage.
Ms Martina Kelly said she was with Mr Gibbons at the Octagon and when Mr Higgins passed she said ‘how ya’ to him. She said he came towards her and she put up her hand to stop him, but claimed he caught her hand and twisted it. She said he then grabbed Mr Gibbons by the neck and they started wrestling. She also claimed that Mr Higgins grabbed Mrs Gibbons by the hair which made her stumble backwards.
Mrs Pauline Gibbons said that when she arrived and tried to separate the two men Mr Higgins pulled her hair and punched her and also kicked her.
Garda Brian Kilkelly said he was accompanied by Garda Siobhan McGowan when they got a call for an assault at 3.09am, and when they arrived he went to speak to Mr Gibbons. He said he was intoxicated and was covered in blood. They asked him to go home with his mother. Garda Kilkelly said that when he got back to the station with Mr Higgins, he realised he was cut badly and he went to Mr Gibbons’s house. On arrival he saw the safety blade in the back of the car which was covered in blood. He spoke to Mrs Gibbons, who gave them permission to take it, and also confirmed that she had a red mark on her forehead.
Garda Siobhan McGowan said when she first approached Mr Higgins, he took out his wallet and said he was a ‘member’. She said that when they were going back to the station he told her that he was going home with his friends when the young male attacked him, and claimed his friends ran off. However, she said that when he was back at the station, he told them he was on his own.
In his submission, Mr Jordan said that the law allowed for self-defence but he said that Mr Gibbons did not strike out at Mr Higgins with the blade in self-defence, he did so in rage. He said the law does not allow you to strike someone in rage or revenge and it did not entitle Mr Gibbons to do what he did to Mr Higgins. However, Mr Garavan said that if one person was out of order on the night, it was Mr Higgins and claimed that Mr Gibbons did what was necessary to protect his mother.