A JUDGE has rejected a claim for damages by a man who claimed he was assaulted by security staff at Dublin airport when he parked his car in a set-down area while collecting his wife and friends from a flight.
At the Circuit Civil Court in Dublin yesterday, Judge Jacqueline Linnane told Dermot Lennon, Laragh, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, she did not accept his evidence about the alleged assault at the airport four years ago.
She said Mr Lennon had been threatening and aggressive towards airport police who had used only reasonable force in arresting him.
Throwing out his personal injuries claim against the Dublin Airport Authority, Judge Linnane said police had not assaulted him.
Mr Lennon’s evidence of alleged minor injuries which had cleared up in a few days was not consistent with his claims of having been “kneed” and “choked” by police officers.
Judge Linnane told Eamon Marray, for the authority, that airport police had been justified in arresting Mr Lennon because of his behaviour. She directed he pay the authority’s legal costs estimated at more than €10,000.
Mr Lennon said on May 19th, 2007, his wife, Barbara, and some friends had been delayed for several hours on a holiday return flight from Tunisia. He arranged to pick them up at the departures set-down area. When told by customer service agent Igorz Golovchenko he could not park there, he said he was going to anyway. Mr Golovchenko told him he would call the police and five police officers had arrived.
After refusing to hand over his keys, he got out of his car and in seconds was kneed in the thigh, lost his feet from under him, was caught around the neck and was choking for breath. He said he felt he was very quickly losing his senses. He was handcuffed and taken to the airport police station.
Mr Lennon said that in minutes, what had been a breach of a parking regulation, which he admitted, had developed into a very serious situation for him. He said his injuries, which cleared up in under a week, were negligible.
Three airport police officers told the court Mr Lennon was agitated and became abusive, aggressive, was screaming, shouting and kicking as he was restrained and handcuffed after he raised a hand in what they considered was a threatening manner. They denied he had been kneed or choked. All stated Lennon had said several times, “f***ing arrest me”.
“The simple fact is that if Mr Lennon had moved his car when he was asked to, this incident would not have occurred at all,” Judge Linnane said. “If he had parked in the multistorey car park while collecting his passengers, none of us would be here today.”