Garda spoke of man 'deserving a slap', court hears

He said Gda Conlon replied: “The most she’ll do would be to go to the Super. He’ll be grand about this.”

Gda Lynch told Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, that Gda Conlon rang him almost a week after the alleged incident and in that conversation told him: “It was nothing to do with you, but as far as you’re concerned we were there to arrest him.”

Gardai Conlon, Eoin Murtagh, Claire Delaney and Sean O’Leary have pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to forcing entry at a Basin Street Upper premises, entering as a trespasser and assaulting Mr Gaffney (aged 21) causing him harm on February 17, 2008.

Gdi Murtagh, Conlon and Delaney have also pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of Ms Fidelma Gaffney on the same occasion.

Gda Lynch told Mr O’Connell that he noticed Gda Conlon flex his right hand, which appeared red, when he got back into the patrol car after the alleged incident in the flat.

When asked if Gda Conlon discussed what had happened, Gda Lynch said his colleague mentioned that at one point he left the room and “held the door handle shut to where the woman was being contained”.

Gda Lynch said Gda Conlon told him at the start of their shift that he was looking for a youth and that he drove to the Basin Street flats a number of times that afternoon.

He said he, Gda Conlon and then Student Garda Caroline Breslin went to Hueston Station to help the Kilmainham patrol car respond to a call.

He said Gda Conlon pulled his car up beside the Kilmainham vehicle in a driver-to-driver position and had a conversation with Gda O’Leary in the other car about Gda Murtagh being assaulted by a youth.

Gda Lynch said Gda Conlon held up something like a sweet wrapper and sniggered when Gda O’Leary asked if he had a warrant.

Gda Lynch said he saw a garda he knew when his car moved to Basin Street and spoke to him about an unrelated matter, before noticing that the “main group” of gardai had started going upstairs to a balcony.

He said he saw the last of the group enter the flat as he and Student Garda Breslin were left on the balcony.

“They looked to me like they were entering the flat purposefully. They didn’t look like they were invited in,” he said.

He told Mr O’Connell that he decided to return to the garda cars after he noticed some “kids” shouting abuse up at him and estimated that the other gardai might have spent about four or five minutes in the flat, though he wasn’t sure.

He added that he hadn’t noticed Gda Conlon’s hand red or seen him flexing it before.

He said his car went to St James’s Hospital later that evening on the second half of the shift after Gda Conlon said he wished to go there.

Gda Lynch agreed with Mr David Keane SC, defending Gda Conlon, that he’d said in one of his statements that he didn’t take part in the conversation between the two patrol car drivers at Heuston Station and “didn’t really pay attention to it.”

Mr Keane put it to him that Gda Breslin had nothing to say about this conversation in her evidence.

Gda Lynch responded that he clearly saw Gda Conlon lift a piece of paper and snigger.

Mr Keane put it to Gda Lynch that though he had mentioned his client flexing his knuckles in the aftermath of the alleged incident in a statment, he said nothing about his hand being red.

He further put it to Gda Lynch that Mr Gaffney, in his evidence, had said he couldn’t recall the garda whose name he didn’t know hitting him at all and suggested the significance Gda Lynch was trying to put on his client’s hand was not supported by other evidence in the case.

He put it to him that it is his client’s case that the conversation including the comment about “gougers needing a slap” never happened. Gda Lynch replied: “It did and I gave it in my statement, and it is true and accurate.”

Mr Keane said it is Gda Conlon’s case that the “episode” with the two patrol cars meeting briefly at Heuston Station didn’t happen.

Gda Lynch responded: “That absolutely did happen. I remember it clearly.”

Mr Keane referred to Gda Lynch’s first statement in which he described Gda Conlon telling him on the phone that he (Gda Lynch) had done nothing wrong, it was nothing to do with him and he had nothing to worry about.

Counsel pointed out that in his evidence in court Gda Lynch said his client told him “as far as you’re concerned we were there to arrest him.”

Gda Lynch said what Gda Conlon had told him on the phone was “along those lines”.

Mr Keane suggested that his best recollection of what had been said was the one included in his first statement, eight days after the alleged incident.

Gda Lynch rejected this, saying he could “clearly” recall Gda Conlon telling him they had been there to arrest Mr Gaffney.

Mr Keane said it was his client’s case that the words he was alleged to have said over the phone in Gda Lynch’s first statement were the words he had uttered.

Gda Lynch told Mr O’Connell in re-examination that all the evidence he had given in the witness box had been included in two statements he had made after the event.

Gda Lynch agreed with Mr Conor Devally SC, defending Gda Murtagh, that he had seen Mr Gaffney in custody before with a blanket twisted about his neck.

He agreed on this occasion Mr Gaffney had been very aggressive under the influence of an intoxicant and when he was moved to an observation cell he was seen running from one side of the room to the other and banging his head off the concrete wall.

The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of six men and six women.