Four gardaí have been cleared of assaulting a teenager in his bed and falsely imprisoning his mother.
Gardaí Alan Conlon, Claire Delaney, Eoin Murtagh and Sean O’Leary were also found not guilty of forcible entry and trespass at Owen and Fidelma Gaffney’s family home in inner city Dublin on February 17th, 2008.
Gardaí Conlon, Delaney and Murtagh were also cleared the false imprisonment of Mr Gaffney’s mother Fidelma in a bathroom of her Basin Street flat.
The jury at Dublin’s Circuit Criminal Court took just over seven hours to return their verdict.
Garda Delaney sobbed out loud in court and Garda O’Leary patted his male colleagues on the knee as they were acquitted.
All four gardaí have been suspended from the force since a complaint was made.
The 25-day trial is believed to have cost the state well over €500,000. The case was investigated by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.
Mr Gaffney needed hospital treatment after he claimed he was hit with batons and kicked and punched by officers.
Medics later noted a bruise to his head, swelling to his nose which had been bleeding, bruising to the front and back of his upper body and a superficial cut to his right upper arm.
Blood was discovered by investigators on Mr Gaffney’s bed, radiator, wall and bedroom door.
And staining on a baton owned by Garda Murtagh was a million to one times more likely to be a mix of DNA from Mr Gaffney and Garda Murtagh than anyone else, experts told the court.
But defence barristers for the gardaí argued evidence given by Mr Gaffney and his mother was not believable or credible and said there was no evidence the group of gardaí went to carry out a vigilant punishment beating.
The jury heard Mr Gaffney, a 21-year-old with almost 30 criminal convictions, had a history of resisting arrest before the attack — even breaking a garda’s jaw on one occasion.
He is currently serving a prison sentence for theft of a nun’s car and criminal damage.
Dressed in a dark suit, Mr Gaffney sat at the back of the courtroom with prison guards throughout the trial holding a copy of Machiavelli's The Prince.
Barristers for the gardaí claimed two car loads of officers from different stations went to his family home to arrest him after he had tussled with Garda Murtagh the night before. He had threatened to bite Garda Conlon’s nose off, it was alleged.
They rejected claims that Mr Gaffney was asleep in bed when the officers entered the room and said that he lunged at the gardaí, adding that they acted in self defence against the teenager and then held his mother - who admitted she was hysterical - in a bathroom.