Pub owner Mr Hugh Courtney made a mistake when he took the law into his own hands by forcibly detaining a man he suspected of having broken a bar window, a judge said yesterday.
However, the judge said the victim could equally have called on Lucan Garda station nearby to sort out the matter and she reduced the €5,000 damages award by 50 per cent.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne ordered the owner of Courtney's Bar, Main Street, Lucan, Co Dublin, to pay damages to Mr Michael Shannon who claimed he had been assaulted and battered when Mr Courtney and some of his staff had accosted him on the street near the pub.
Judge Dunne told Mr Breffni Gordon, counsel for Mr Shannon, of Ardeevin Avenue, Lucan, that Mr Courtney made his first mistake by not going to the next-door Garda station after staff had alleged Mr Shannon had cracked the 10 feet by 5 feet window with his elbow while sitting on the outside window sill.
Mr Gordon had told the court that Mr Shannon had been prosecuted on a charge of criminal damage and had been acquitted in the District Court.
From the moment Mr Shannon had aggressively denied involvement, Mr Courtney should have backed off and contacted gardaí. "He didn't do that and instead took Mr Shannon and the law into his own hands," Judge Dunne said.
She did not accept Mr Shannon's claims that he had been dragged, punched and kicked on his way to the Garda station.