A GARDA charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice has denied that he deliberately switched closed circuit television cameras away from an incident involving three colleagues as they attempted to arrest a man they have since been accused of assaulting.
Garda John Burke of Waterford station denies acting with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of another and of acting in a manner tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.
Garda Burke is one of four gardaí on trial at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court. Garda Sgt Alan Kissane, Garda Sgt Martha McEnery and Garda Daniel Hickey all deny a charge of assault causing harm to Anthony Holness.
The jury had already heard the assault causing harm charges against the three gardaí arose from an incident at New Street in Waterford at about 3am on January 29th, 2010, as they attempted to arrest Mr Holness after he urinated in the street.
Yesterday, the jury heard evidence of a memo of an interview with Garda Burke recorded by Ray Leonard of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, who investigated a complaint by Mr Holness in relation to the manner of his arrest.
Mr Leonard read out details from the memo in which Garda Burke confirmed he was working as a communications room operator at Waterford Garda station on the night in question when he was operating CCTV surveillance and taking radio and phone calls.
Garda Burke, who was on his own at the relevant time, denied he had deliberately twice switched the camera away from the incident involving his three colleagues as they tried to arrest Mr Holness, who was resisting arrest.
The joystick control for the camera was highly sensitive and he may have accidentally brushed against it while answering phone calls that were coming into the communications room, Garda Burke told Mr Leonard and a commission colleague, Liam Hickey.
Garda Burke said he had been working full time in the communications room since shortly before Christmas 2009 but he had never received formal training or seen a copy of a guide entitled Protocols and Procedures for Communications Room at Waterford Station.
“I operated the CCTV cameras to the best of my ability at all times,” said Garda Burke, in the interview with Mr Leonard, before he flatly rejected a suggestion that his operation of the CCTV camera fell below acceptable standards.
He said the incident was not recorded in a logbook with four other incidents that night because the logbook was used just to record reports of incidents phoned into the station.