Jury clears two gardaí of assault
A jury took only 40 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict of not guilty in the case against the member of An Garda Siochana accused of assaulting a man arrested in West Cork for drink driving.
At 12.01 today the seven men and five women retired to the jury room in Courtroom Two at the Washington Street courthouse in Cork.
At 12.41, there was a knock on the door indicating that they had reached a verdict.
It was a unanimous verdict clearing Garda Jason Wallace of Kinsale Garda Station of the charge of assault causing harm to Roy O’Donoghue on September 6 last year.
A second accused, Garda John Alfred, was found not guilty by direction of Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin last Friday.
This followed a legal argument that Garda Alfred was the driver of the car at the time of the alleged assault and that there was no evidence suggesting that he saw the incident or could have done anything to intervene.
Summing up the case today for the jury, Judge Ó Donnabháin, said the defence case included an assertion that Roy O’Donoghue did not tell the full truth when he made his complaint that he had been assaulted.
"Mr Patrick McCarthy (senior counsel for the defence) said he (O’Donoghue) was only
drip-feeding information to the guards," the judge noted.
He reminded the jury that the accused made three statements in his claim that he was assaulted yet he only admitted as recently as two months ago that he had been involved in a fight over a game of pool earlier in the night, before the incident where he claimed he was assaulted in the patrol car.
"The defence is saying that Mr O’Donoghue was very aggressive in relation to the incident with the pool, that he was looking for a fight. The defence want you to believe he (O’Donoghue) is an aggressive man and he loses the head. Whether there is evidence for that or not is a matter for you," Judge Ó Donnabháin said.
He also reminded the jurors that in the earlier fight over the game of pool the man he fought head-butted him in the face when he was on the ground.
The judge told the jurors that they had heard evidence about Roy O’Donoghue’s relationship with Tara Mukerjee.
"Was he a violent person? Was he violent towards her? You are not on a social enquiry into people's lives. You are here to evaluate whether he was a violent person and whether it has
a relevance to the charge."
