A man has been awarded €200,000 damages after a High Court jury found he was assaulted by an off-duty garda and later maliciously prosecuted over an incident outside a nightclub.
Aidan McNellis (33), a software engineer, of Curralee, Headford Road, Galway, sued Garda Paul Carney of Store Street Garda station in Dublin, the Garda Commissioner and the State.
The case arose out of an incident in which Mr McNellis and some others, including off-duty gardaí, were seeking entry to Bad Bob’s nightclub on Essex Street, Dublin, on April 23rd, 2001.
The defendants denied assault, battery, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
Following just over an hour and a half of deliberations yesterday, a jury of seven women and five men found Mr McNellis was assaulted, battered, falsely imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted. They awarded €150,000 compensatory damages and €50,000 in exemplary damages. Mr Justice Eamon de Valera agreed to put a normal 21-day stay on his order in the event of an appeal.