Garda awarded damages for slander

A garda who was wrongly accused of having passed off a forged £20 note has been awarded damages for slander against a pub in …

A garda who was wrongly accused of having passed off a forged £20 note has been awarded damages for slander against a pub in Heuston Station.

At Dublin Circuit Civil Court, Garda Martin Kilbane told his counsel, Mr Hugh Mohan SC, he was "stunned and devastated" when two of his colleagues from Kilmainham Garda station questioned him about the accusation.

Garda Kilbane, of Leixlip, Co Kildare, said he had collected relatives at Dublin Airport on August 1st last year and had driven them to Heuston Station. As the group drank tea and coffee at the beer garden outside the Galway Hooker pub in the station he was approached by Sgt Matt Boyle and Garda Mark Massey.

Sgt Boyle had told him he had been identified by a member of the staff as having tendered a forged £20 note at the bar. Following a period of questioning, Sgt Boyle had told him a mistake had been made by the member of staff involved.

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Judge Smyth awarded Garda Kilbane £10,000 damages.