A Garda sergeant was awarded £25,000 compensation by the High Court yesterday as a result of an incident in 1994 during which he was assaulted by a drunken man who attempted to squirt blood at him from a needle which the man had inserted in his arm.
Mr Justice Budd was told the drunken man became violent when gardai in Blanchardstown, Co Dublin, refused to give him a lift to his home in Finglas in the early hours of the morning. The man had attempted to squirt blood at one of the station officers, Sgt Liam Geraghty.
The man made two attempts to escape from the station, but was foiled. During a third escape attempt the man assaulted the sergeant and caught him by his left hand. He said: "As I tried to defend myself, he literally pulled the shirt off my back."
Sgt Geraghty told the court that he had problems using his left hand after the incident. It was painful to write and he had difficulty in handling implements