A GARDA sergeant accused of assaulting a man on the street told her superior she hit the injured party “a couple of slaps on the back of the neck” while she and colleagues were trying to handcuff him, a court has heard.
The evidence was given yesterday by Insp Tom Duggan of Waterford Garda station during the trial of four gardaí charged with offences arising out of an alleged assault on Anthony Holness (38) at about 2.30am on January 29th last year.
Garda Sgt Alan Kissane, Garda Sgt Martha McEnery and Garda Daniel Hickey all deny assaulting Mr Holness, causing him harm.
Garda John Burke is alleged to have turned a CCTV camera away from the scene for a number of seconds during the alleged assaults, while he was directing the system at Waterford Garda station.
He denies a charge of acting with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of another and acting in a manner tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.
Insp Duggan told Waterford Circuit Court yesterday that he spoke to Garda Sgt McEnery on February 7th, 2010. She told him she had viewed CCTV footage of the incident at New Street
“She indicated that she had hit a person involved a couple of slaps on the back of the neck, in order that she could get the handcuffs on,” he said.
Kevin McGrath, business development manager with Mongey Communications, said his company installed the CCTV system, which involved 33 cameras, in Waterford city. It was commissioned on August 19th, 2009.
The footage was viewed in the Garda station’s communications room, he said, and an operator could use a joystick to move any camera at a particular time, zoom in and out, tilt it and change its viewpoint. “The cameras remained static unless moved by the operator,” he said.
Cross-examining Mr McGrath, Elaine Morgan for Garda Burke said there were three e-mails between January 25th and February 10th, 2010, regarding problems with some of the cameras not working and the joystick moving “of its own volition”.
Mr McGrath said he was asked about a month or six weeks ago if he could produce an “audit trail” of the recordings for the date of the incident but, by then, the footage was “overwritten and lost in the passage of time”.
The allegations are that Garda Hickey repeatedly punched Mr Holness in the head after Mr Holness resisted arrest, while Garda Sgt Kissane is alleged to have stood on Mr Holness and Sgt McEnery is alleged to have hit him on the head with her fist. Mr Holness was seen urinating on the street while on his way home from a night out.
The trial continues today.