A former trade union general secretary and peace commissioner was cleared yesterday of assaulting a garda who intervened during a street incident involving the retired official and his sister.
Mr Michael Keating (65), Annaville Grove, Dundrum, Dublin, denied assaulting Garda Nuala Bruce, who claimed he slapped her hand hard after she approached when she saw Mr Keating hitting his sister.
Mr Keating denied striking his sister or the garda. He was trying to move his sister along to get her to go home rather than go to a pub as she was very drunk, he said. He claimed he was "hauled along like a dog" by the garda without explanation.
Dublin District Court heard that the incident happened near the entrance to the Herbert Hotel in Ballsbridge on the evening of April 8th last after Mr Keating and his sister had come from the a.g.m. of the Educational Building Society, in which he is a shareholder.
Garda Bruce said her attention was drawn to a man striking a woman three times and when she spoke to the woman she did not wish to make a complaint and walked off. Garda Bruce tried to speak to Mr Keating, who she claimed was intoxicated, but he tried to push past her and slapped her hand, causing her to drop her motorcycle helmet.
Mr Keating claimed he was "nudging" his sister from behind with his finger to try to get her to her home, which was nearby, and she walked off as the garda arrived. Without saying anything, Garda Bruce "landed on my shoulder with her arm around my throat, saying 'How dare you walk away'."
He denied he was drunk and claimed that when he asked her to listen to his side of the story the garda replied: "I don't want to. I know the sort you are".
He was handcuffed and placed in a passing patrol car and spent the next six hours in Donnybrook Garda station because, he claimed, officers refused to take a complaint from him about his treatment before he signed his bail bond.
He was released around midnight after a new shift sergeant came on and took his complaint.
Judge Anne Watkin said she had "a very slight doubt" and was prepared to give the benefit of that to Mr Keating. The State could have dealt with the case in another way by producing witnesses, including a garda sergeant who formally charged him and two security guards from the Herbert Hotel, but had not done so, the judge added.