Gardaí not guilty of May Day assault
Two members of An Garda Siochana have been found not guilty by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of assaulting a "Reclaim the Streets" protestor in May 2002.
Gardaí Thomas Victory and Ronan Judge of Store St garda station, had both denied assaulting Mr Rory McMonagle (aged 23), of Neville Road, Rathgar, on May 6, 2002.
The jury reached its unanimous acquittal verdict on day-10 of the trial after deliberating for one hour and 15 minutes and reviewing video film recordings of the incident that led to the charges.
Judge Yvonne Murphy thanked the four women and eight men of the jury for their care and attention to the case and discharged the accused men from the court.
Judge Murphy told the jury on Friday that it was discharged in relation to the same charge against Gda Paul Daly from Pearse St station. A new date will be set for his trial.
Gda Victory told the jury in evidence on Friday that he struck out with his batons after he felt "a full force punch to the side of his face" and there was "a rush of people" around him.
Gda Victory told the jury: "I feel remorse now as I look at the video film. I feel it doesn’t represent me as I have been before.
"I felt threatened, I felt frightened and I responded for a matter of three to four seconds for my own protection," he said in reply to defence counsel, Mr Patrick J McCarthy SC (with Mr Breffni Gordon BL).
Gda Victory told Mr McCarthy he had used his baton only once before since he joined the gardaí in 1995. He said that was a few years ago when a man he and a colleague had arrested threatened to slash a vein in his arm with a broken bottle. They succeeded in stopping him harming himself.
Gda Victory said he made hundreds of arrests as a garda and got on "absolutely fine" with colleagues and the public. Practically all his work was outdoors, on the beat or in the patrol car.
Gda Victory agreed with prosecuting counsel, Mr John O’Kelly SC (with Mr Luan O Braonain BL), in cross-examination, that no order had been given to gardaí to draw their batons or to charge the crowd at the demonstration.
He told Mr O’Kelly he was aware of the regulations about baton use but he had specifically reacted to something that had happened to him alone.
Gda Victory also agreed with Mr O’Kelly that he was the garda seen on the film to strike out at Mr McMonagle and that he had moved through the other gardaí to do so at the time.
He further agreed that the video showed Mr McMonagle was "no threat" to him at the time and that he could be seen "covering-up".
Mr McMonagle told the jury that by the time the protest had moved from Burgh Quay to Dame Street and onto College Green around 6-7pm gardaí "appeared to have had enough" and were aggressively pushing people from the street onto the pavement.
In his opinion, they did so "without proper consideration" of those already on the pavement. Mr McMonagle, a Trinity College student at the time, said this caused a lot of people to be squashed and fall over each other.
He said he saw a young woman lying on the ground in a foetal position as "gardaí were stampeding on her" and out of concern for her he pushed a garda away.
"Then about six gardaí were hitting me with their batons," he told the jury. He said although he did not fall to the ground he kept his head down as gardaí hit him on the head, arms and legs.
Mr McMonagle said five or six seconds later a more senior garda, whom he believed appeared to think his colleagues’ attack was "getting out of hand" put a stop to it. When he put his hand to his head he realised it was bleeding.
He then stood there for a while with his blood-covered hand outstretched, saying to the gardai, "Look what you have done." A short while later, he moved on and was reunited with the friend he had accidentally separated from during the protest.
Mr McMonagle said he got into the first ambulance he found on the street and was treated at St James’ Hospital with six stitches to close the wounds on his head.
