A High Court judge has described as "outrageous" the treatment by gardaí of a mother-of-five who was arrested at her home for non-payment of a parking fine and who sustained injuries after the Garda patrol car transporting her to Mountjoy Prison was in a collision with another vehicle.
Mr Justice Paul Butler yesterday awarded €25,000 damages to Geraldine Coleman arising from the incident and also awarded costs to her on the Circuit Court scale.
Describing the incident as "outrageous", the judge said: "She failed to pay a parking fine and at least five gardaí, four of them male, arrived at her home at 6am. That is the Garda case.
"Taking every word the gardaí said as true, it is still outrageous. She tries to go back for her shoes and she was grabbed by a garda and flung up on the bonnet of the car and handcuffed. There is no excuse whatsoever for such behaviour."
Ms Coleman (45), Beechmount Grove, Navan, Co Meath, had sued the Minister for Finance and Andrew Hyland, Trim, Co Meath, the driver of a vehicle involved in the collision with the Garda patrol car.
She alleged she sustained injuries when the car crashed. The judge found Mr Hyland blameless and "entirely innocent".
The accident occurred on the Dunshaughlin Road at the junction for Trim in heavy traffic on the morning of September 20th, 2002.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Butler said it was most outrageous and outlandish that gardaí had impressed on the State in the case to blame Ms Coleman for not wearing a seatbelt in the car when she was handcuffed with her hands behind her back.
He said the patrol car which crashed was being driven at least partially on the wrong side of the road. The "excuse" for this behaviour" from the "poor" garda driver was that she was subject to verbal abuse from Ms Coleman. How could it be safer to drive on the wrong side of the road to get to Mountjoy? he asked.
Mr Hyland was entirely innocent and had believed he was beckoned by another driver to come out into the line of traffic, the judge said.
Accepting Mr Hyland's evidence that he did not see the Garda car until the last minute, Mr Justice Butler said: "He took evasive action. He was blameless."
Assessing damages, the judge said he had to put the outrageous aspects of the case out of his mind and deal solely with the accident.
Awarding €25,000 for pain and suffering, he said if that sum seemed small in relation to what happened, it was because he was confined to the accident.
Outside the court, Ms Coleman said the unpaid parking fine was for €400. She also said she did not know about the fine because the notification had gone to another house she owned.
She said the matter had been hanging over her for the last three years. "I spent three hours in prison. I am so glad the judge said what he did. He was one hundred per cent right in what he said about the arrest."
She added she would be talking to her legal advisers in relation to taking separate legal action over the circumstances of her arrest.