A High Court jury has awarded a woman £11,000 in damages against the State following her arrest by two gardai. The jury found the gardai had no reasonable cause for suspecting the woman was in possession of drugs in the Dolphin's Barn area of Dublin in 1996.
Ms Paula Cassidy (21), a cleaner, had told the court she was arrested by two plainclothes detectives, bundled into an unmarked car and taken to Kevin Street Garda Station, where she was strip-searched. Nothing was found. She said she had never felt more degraded.
Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, for Ms Cassidy, described her arrest as akin to a "Starsky and Hutch-type operation". Both arresting gardai said in evidence they saw a well-known drugs dealer appear to signal to Ms Cassidy to pass him by. They now accepted she was a decent hard-working young woman.
Supt John Mulderrig gave evidence that in 1996 there were 12,000 heroin addicts in Dublin. In his area, which included Dolphin's Barn, there were about 1,000 addicts and on one occasion he saw as many as 12 people injecting themselves with the drug. About 15 to 30 suspects were arrested each day, less than 5 per cent of whom were found in possession of drugs.