I see the gardai accussed of entering a flat on Basin St and kicking the fuck out of a scumbag were found not guilty. Fairly surprising verdict considering everything I read pointed to them being guilty.
A victory for common sense.
The Gardai, alright sorts 
29/07/2011 - 19:08:48
Four gardaĂ have been acquitted of forcing entry to a Basin Street flat, trespass and assaulting a teenage occupant.
The jury took seven hours to return all verdicts on day-25 of the trial.
Gardaà Alan Conlon, Eoin Murtagh, Claire Delaney and Sean O’Leary had pleaded not guilty to forcing entry at a Basin Street Upper premises, entering as a trespasser and assaulting Mr Owen Gaffney (now aged 21) causing him harm on February 17, 2008.
Gdi Murtagh, Conlon and Delaney had also pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of Ms Fidelma Gaffney on the same occasion.
The jury unanimously acquitted all four gardaĂ of forcing entry and trespass and found Gdi Conlon, Delaney and Murtagh unanimously not guilty of false imprisonment.
Gda Delaney was unanimously acquitted of assault causing harm and Gdi Murtagh, O’Leary and Conlon were found not guilty of the same charge by majority verdict.
Judge Desmond Hogan thanked the six men and six women of the jury for being “most attentive” in the case and commented that it was “no easy task to sit in judgement on one’s fellow human being”.
During the trial, Mr Gaffney said Gda O’Leary hit him on the head with a baton and Gda Murtagh also went to hit him with a baton but he blocked it with his arm. He said he was then hit “from all over the place, from every angle”.
Mr Gaffney said he was taken to the other side of the room while “half knocked out” and set down on a sofa. He said a garda told him “three seconds”, then Gda Murtagh kicked him in the face with his boot.
He said he was kicked in the chin by Gda Murtagh but agreed he did not sustain an injury.
Mr Gaffney denied that he had been the aggressor in the incident, that he was out of control and that Gda Conlon had sought to assist his colleagues in restraining him.
He denied that he had been very violent and spat at the gardaĂ during the alleged incident.
The jury heard that Mr Gaffney has a number of previous convictions, including one for assaulting a garda but he did not accept during the trial that he had broken the garda’s jaw during the course of that attack.
He accepted he is serving a sentence at the moment for stealing a nun’s car.
Mr Gaffney also accepted during the trial that he has instructed a solicitor to take a civil action on his behalf.
He agreed he sued for injuries he received in the alleged beating.
Mr Gaffney remains in custody where he is still serving a sentence.
Garda Margaret Burke said she and Gda Murtagh had tried to take control of a number of youths involved in a fight the night before the alleged incident.
She said one youth was kicking out at Gda Murtagh in an effort to escape and as he later helped her handcuff the person whom she had been struggling with, he replied: “Gaffney got away”.
She said she saw a mark on the left side of Gda Murtagh’s face but couldn’t recall seeing blood.
A GSOC spokesman, Graham Doyle, speaking outside court said: “The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission did what it was set up to do. We gathered the evidence and brought it to the appropriate forum for adjudication”.
“That was our job in this as is it is in all cases. One of our functions is to promote public confidence in the police oversight system and having these cases decided upon in open court should add to that confidence.”
Ms Fidelma Gaffney said she was gabbed by the throat and arm and forced into the bathroom for about five minutes after she had seen two uniformed gardai beat her son as he lay in bed.
She said she had asked to see a warrant when gardai arrived at her door and was shown a piece of paper briefly by one garda as they walked past her into her home.
Ms Gaffney said she bought a disposable camera in a nearby Spar shop and took pictures of her son after the incident and before his father took him to hospital.
Garda Katherine Patterson, then a student garda, told Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, that she saw Gda Claire Delaney hold up a piece of paper to a woman who had opened the door and asked for a warrant.
She said she couldn’t see into the bedroom but heard moaning coming from inside and then saw Gda Conlon come out and switch places with Gda Murtagh, who had been holding the bathroom door shut.
Gda Patterson told Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, that it was suggested she might be implicated or be an accessory to a crime and would lose her job when another accused, Gda Claire Delaney, had asked about the Garda Ombudsman Commission.
He said that when she replied “nothing” to a question about what she had seen, Gda Murtagh responded: “Right answer.”
Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, defending Gda Delaney, put it to Gda Patterson that Ms Gaffney had given evidence that a male garda responded to the question about warrant and had shown a piece of paper.
Gda Patterson replied: “I was at the door, I was sober and I remember Claire Delaney with a piece of paper.”
Garda Caroline Breslin, then a student garda, said she was in a patrol car with Gda Alan Conlon a few days after the alleged assault when he told her if anyone asked her about the incident, she wasn’t to say anything.
Garda Conlon told the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) that he regretted that the situation “got out of hand”, felt it was dealt with unprofessionally and apologised.
Mr Gerard McDonnell, a GSOC officer, said Gda Conlon told him he had been driving around the Basin Street flats on February 17, 2008 looking to arrest Mr Gaffney for threatening to bite off his nose the previous night.
Gda Conlon said he found out Gda Eoin Murtagh was looking to arrest Mr Gaffney also and got a radio call from the Kilmainham vehicle later that day to go to Basin Street flats.
Gda Conlon said he decided to “pull out” when he felt the situation “got out of hand” and to return another time to arrest Mr Gaffney.
He denied striking Mr Gaffney with his baton. He said he didn’t believe the force used had been excessive but added that he felt he could have handled the situation more professionally.
Gda Murtagh, in his solicitor’s presence, told Mr McDonnell that he disagreed with the allegations made and described assisting two colleagues in breaking up a fight involving Mr Gaffney on February 16, 2008.
He said he struggled with Mr Gaffney on the ground, but had no handcuffs and let him go.
He denied entering the Basin Street flat illegally, assaulting Mr Gaffney and falsely imprisoning his mother.
Gda Delaney said she went to the premises to help Gda Murtagh make an arrest for something that happened the previous night.
She denied Ms Gaffney had asked to see a warrant, denied showing her a document and said she contradicted a statement by then Student Garda Catherine Patterson that she had shown something purporting to be a warrant.
A senior GSOC officer, Mr Garett Croke, told Mr McGrath that Gda O’Leary accepted he had been at the flat but rejected the allegations, denied entering the premises unlawfully or beating Mr Gaffney with two batons, saying: “That statement is grossly untrue, that did not happen.”
Garda Garret Lynch said he heard Garda Alan Conlon pass comment about a “gouger deserving a slap” after the incident and this prompted him to ask about Mr Owen Gaffney’s mother making a complaint.
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 said 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.”
Mr Keane 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.”
Sergeant Collette Wheeler said Gda Delaney was called to the station a week after the incident to see if she wished to make a report about the alleged incident, which was then under investigation, and she apologised for lying about not being in the flat.
The sergeant said Gda O’Leary told her “no way” had he been in the flat and that nothing like that happened when she put it to him that the lady had named him as one of the gardai present during an incident.
She told Mr McGrath that while there was a record on the Garda PULSE System of a public order incident on James Street on February 16, 2008, there was no record of Gda Murtagh’s or Mr Gaffney’s involvement.
She said there was also no record on the system of Mr Gaffney threatening Gda Conlon in a separate incident.
She said if gardaà use their batons it’s customary practice for them to file a report outlining why, but she didn’t receive any such reports after the alleged incident.
She added that if a garda makes an assault allegation, the investigation would be carried out by a sergeant or higher up and she wasn’t aware of any other sergeant being asked to investigate an assault on Gda Murtagh.
The sergeant agreed with Mr Conor Devally, senior counsel defending Gda Murtagh, that she was aware the two gardai involved in the recorded public order incident on February 16 supported his client’s full account of what had happened.
Garda Margaret Burke told Mr Devally that she agreed to give Gda Murtagh a lift into town in her patrol car after he’d come off duty that night.
She said she and her other colleague on patrol noticed a fight had broken out further among a group of about six or seven people.
She said she ran over to the group, took control of one male and noticed Gda Murtagh to her right trying to restrain someone in a dark hoodie, who was kicking out at him in an effort to escape.
She said she saw Gda Murtagh on the ground struggling with this person at one point.
Gda Burke said when she asked Gda Murtagh afterwards if he was OK, he responded: “Gaffney got away.”
Gda Burke agreed with Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting that Gda Murtagh had declined to make a statement about the incident when asked and that she hadn’t seen Mr Gaffney during the incident.[left][left]
Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/gardai-cleared-of-assaulting-teenager-in-flat-514749.html#ixzz1Tat8l0jr[/left][/left]
This is fucking outrageous! 
Shut your mouth, or I’ll send a big clutchie guard around to shut it for you
There should be a retrial.
I have found that the defence’s reference to the theft of a nun’s car is inflammatory and irrelevant. It unduly influenced the jury. He stole a car, the fact it belonged to a nun is irrelevant.
Swear in a new jury and let’s have another go at this. Justice must be served.
I presume you are unfamiliar with the concept of double jeopardy. These people were acquitted by a jury of their peers. The matter rests. [quote=“SHANNONSIDER, post: 613170”]
There should be a retrial.
I have found that the defence’s reference to the theft of a nun’s car is inflammatory and irrelevant. It unduly influenced the jury. He stole a car, the fact it belonged to a nun is irrelevant.
Swear in a new jury and let’s have another go at this. Justice must be served.
[/quote]
Whack whack whack take that you scummer
I fail to see what a cheesy game show has to do with this but I’m willing to hear you out. Approach the bench.