Garda convicted of assaulting teenage boy in Temple Bar four years ago
Lorcan Murphy, 32, of Pearse Street Garda Station, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault causing harm under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.
The assaults on the then 17-year-old took place on Essex Street, Dublin 2, and Pearse Street Garda Station on June 1, 2021.
After four hours and 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on both counts.
There was complete silence in the court after the jury delivered its verdict.
Judge Pauline Codd thanked the jurors for their service. She adjourned the matter for sentencing until November 3 next, in order to prepare a probation report and a victim impact statement. She remanded Murphy on continuing bail.
The trial heard the complainant had been 'drinking that day' and had also been 'smoking weed'. He also said that he 'could have been' carrying alcohol.
He went to meet his girlfriend in Temple Bar and said the last thing he remembered was walking past McDonald's on Grafton Street.
He said 'waking up in James' Hospital' was the next thing he remembered. Someone in the hospital told him he was involved in an incident with the gardaí.
He said he ran out of the hospital as he 'freaked out', and thought nothing was wrong with him.
He woke up with a pain in his head, then went to the Mater Hospital before being transferred to Beaumont Hospital, where he stayed for five days.
He said he had headaches but has no issues with his memory.
The complainant agreed during cross-examination he had no recollection of the incident, due to a head injury, but accepted alcohol and cannabis could have contributed to his lack of memory.
In his evidence, Mr Murphy said he went to assist a colleague, who was dealing with the complainant. He instructed the complainant to remove his hands from his pockets, then noted the young man tense up.
Mr Murphy said the complainant produced a glass bottle in such a way that he believed he was at risk of being struck with the bottle.
Mr Murphy said he managed to take hold of the complainant's second hand, and he was handcuffed. He said the complainant was spitting towards him.
Mr Murphy said he felt unsafe both for himself and the arrested complainant.
He said he had his hand on the complainant's back and felt him shift his weight, and Mr Murphy then performed a leg sweep. The side of the complainant's body and head made contact with the ground.
Mr Murphy checked him visually and said at no stage was he unconscious. He requested prisoner transport and that a doctor be called to Pearse Street Garda Station.
In his closing speech, prosecuting counsel John Gallagher BL told the jury the prosecution's case was that excessive force was used in the leg sweep, which resulted in the complainant's head impacting the ground.
He submitted the level of force used to bring the complainant to the ground after his initial arrest was not reasonable, inherently dangerous and likely to cause injury to the complainant.
Mr Justin McQuade, BL, defending, said the force used was a leg sweep, and it was an 'unfortunate secondary impact' when the complainant hit his head on the ground, adding his client 'did not have the luxury of picking a softer landing point'.
Mr McQuade suggested if gardaí were going to be criminalised for using force, they may be slower to use it in the future and that benefits no one.
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Irish Times
14 hours ago
- Irish Times
Woman tortured over false drug accusation will never forgive ‘sick' men who attacked her
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All of the men, who have between one and 124 previous convictions, were on bail at the time of the offence. In text messages read out in court, one of the men boasted to a friend during the incident that they had a 'hostage' and had 'cut her up', to which this unidentified man replied: 'quality'. Phone video footage taken inside the flat that day was also played in court, which showed the woman bloodied and distressed and a hammer being heated up on a hob. The woman was left with a broken eye socket, broken cheekbone, broken nasal bone, broken elbow, burns, dislocated teeth, bruising and lacerations across her head and scalp, among other injuries. She required skin grafts, staples to her scalp, and later had surgery to remove a disc in her back, the court heard. She spent three weeks in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the assault. Five of the eight men present that day entered guilty pleas, while another man and a juvenile are still before the courts. 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'The smell of my skin burning, I will never get that smell out of my mind again,' she said, adding that she was 'completely helpless' and outnumbered by the eight men. 'I never knew humanity could be so cruel,' she said. Det Garda Peter Guyett told the court that at the time of the incident, the woman and her then partner were staying with one of the men whose case is still before the court. While there, the woman became aware this man was holding drugs in his house. [ Kinahan crime boss ordered to pay back £1 million or face more jail time Opens in new window ] On the day in question, this man and another person approached the woman in the house and told her: 'Come on, we've to go,' before she was put into an Audi containing two other men and driven to Henrietta House. There were eight men in the flat, and a 'baby-faced' man – who later emerged to be Rice – started interrogating her about a €90,000 batch of cocaine that had gone missing from the home she was staying in. 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Judge Codd thanked the woman for attending court. 'She has been through unimaginable trauma,' she said. The court heard McMahon has 27 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary, robbery and malicious damage. Keogh has 124 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, possession of knives, assault causing harm and escaping custody. Conroy has 89 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary and possession of knives. Rice has 12 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession. Walshe has one previous conviction. The maximum sentences for false imprisonment and assault causing harm are life and 10 years respectively. Judge Codd adjourned the case to next Wednesday, when defence counsel will give their pleas of mitigation.
Sunday World
18 hours ago
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Mum burned with blowtorch during three-hour torture by eight-man gang slams ‘animals'
'so cruel' | 'I was beaten, stabbed and burnt – tortured to confess to something I knew nothing about,' she said. During a three hour period in September last year in which she was put through 'unimaginable trauma', the woman was beaten to the head and body with metal poles. She was burned with a makeshift blow torch and a heated hammer head, cut with a knife, kicked and punched, had her hair cut off and was threatened with rape, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard. The men took running jumps at her during the assault in a one bedroom flat at Henrietta House, Dublin 7, threatened to make her drink ammonia and also threatened to rape her teenage daughter. She was terrified throughout and thought she was going to die, Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, told the sentence hearing today. Left to right: Sean Conroy (21), Mark McMahon (55), Mark Keogh (33), Kian Walshe (22), Braxton Rice (20). All five admitted to falsely imprisoning and assaulting the woman at Henrietta House in Bolton Street, Dublin 7, on September 26, 2024. News in 90 Seconds - July 25th The assault only ended when gardaí entered the flat with a search warrant, the court heard. All of the men, who have between one and 124 previous convictions respectively, were on bail at the time of the offence. In text messages read out in court, one of the men boasted to a friend during the incident that they had a 'hostage' and had 'cut her up', to which this unidentified man replied: 'quality'. Phone video footage taken inside the flat that day was also played in court, which showed the woman bloodied and distressed and a hammer being heated up on a hob. Read more The woman was left with a broken eye socket, broken cheekbone, broken nasal bone, broken elbow, burns, dislocated teeth, bruising and lacerations across her head and scalp among other injuries. She required skin grafts, staples to her scalp and later had surgery to remove a disc in her back, the court heard. She spent three weeks in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the assault. Five of the eight men present that day entered guilty pleas, while another man and a juvenile are still before the courts. The eighth person is not before the courts. Sean Conroy, from Silloge Road, Ballymun, Dublin pictured at the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street. Photo: Mark Keogh (33), Mark McMahon (55) and Braxton Rice (21), all of Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, Dublin 7, along with Sean Conroy (21) of Sillogue Road, Ballymun and Kian Walshe (22) of Constitution Hill, Dublin 7, all pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to the woman at Henrietta House on September 26, 2024. A number of other counts against each man relating to the production of articles in the course of an offence, were taken into consideration. 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On the day in question, this man and another person approached the woman in the house and told her: 'Come on, we've to go', before she was put into an Audi containing two other men and driven to Henrietta House. There were eight men in the flat and a 'baby-faced' man, who later emerged to be Rice, started interrogating her about a €90k batch of cocaine that had gone missing from the home she was staying in. Rice accessed the woman's Facebook account and demanded her mother's address, threatening to rape her teenage daughter who was staying there. He started hitting her across the head with a metal pole before he 'lost control' and started hitting her all over her body, the court heard. An older man, later identified as McMahon, whose flat it was, held a hatchet up to her face while his son Keogh, referred to in court as 'Sparky' hit her across the head with a pole. Conroy kicked her face. 'Every person there hit her,' Ms Cummings said. 'Not one of them didn't get involved'. 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Judge Codd ordered that there be no recording in court, reminding those in the public gallery that this is in contempt of court. In her victim impact statement, the woman said that the men had tortured her family information out of her and the threat of rape against her daughter had destroyed her. She said she now isolates herself from her family so they will never be in danger again. She said the torture she endured was the longest three hours of her life and she continues to suffer from flashbacks, constant headaches, pain all over her body 'from all the hits I took that day'. She is still waiting on a psychological appointment, she said. 'What happened to me is something I will never forget,' she said. 'I will never forgive those sick human beings for what they have done to me.' Concluding her statement, she said: 'To the people who did this to me: I hope you can sleep well at night, because I most certainly can't.' Judge Codd thanked the woman for attending court. 'She has been through unimaginable trauma,' she said. The court heard McMahon has 27 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary, robbery and malicious damage. Keogh has 124 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, possession of knives, assault causing harm and escaping custody. Conroy has 89 previous convictions including drug dealing and possession, burglary and possession of knives. Rice has 12 previous convictions including drug dealing and possession while Walshe has one previous conviction. The maximum sentences for false imprisonment and assault causing harm are life and 10 years respectively. Judge Codd adjourned the case to next Wednesday, when defence counsel will give their pleas of mitigation.
Irish Daily Mirror
19 hours ago
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Off-duty bouncer "no longer the same man" after violent hotel assault
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Garda Emmet Furlong gave evidence that the injured man was sitting in his car outside the Royal Hotel on Main Street, Arklow at around 10pm on Christmas Eve five years ago to collect his partner from work. Garda Furlong said Mr Lee saw Gorecki and another male, with whom he had interactions in the past in his role as a bouncer at the hotel. The witness said the two men had been barred from the premises by Mr Lee as a result of a previous incident. He told the court that Mr Lee felt the two men, one of whom seemed to have a bottle in his hand, were glaring at him before they walked up and down past his vehicle on the other side of the road. Garda Furlong told prosecution counsel, James Kelly, BL that the bouncer got out of his car to go to speak to the pair. Video footage of the incident was played in court which showed that Gorecki attempted to hit Mr Lee before throwing a bottle at his head. The accused's companion had punched and kicked the victim between the two actions by Gorecki. The court heard that Mr Lee was referred to three different hospitals over the Christmas holiday period for treatment for his injuries. Garda Furlong said the victim suffered fractures to his skull, eye socket and cheekbone and required surgery to implant three plates in his face. He told Mr Kelly that Gorecki was 'nonplussed' by what happened when arrested and claimed he had not thrown a bottle. The witness said the accused was still of the view that the bottle had not hit Mr Lee, despite the video evidence. The court heard that Gorecki had no previous convictions at the time of the assault on the bouncer but had subsequently been convicted of two public order offences for being intoxicated in a public place. Cross-examined by defence counsel, Feargal Kavanagh SC, as to who was the principal protagonist in the assault, Garda Furlong said Gorecki caused the most damage but his accomplice, who received an 18-month prison sentence for his role, was 'more of a leader.' The court heard Gorecki had been drinking at a party in his sister's house in Arklow earlier on Christmas Eve. In a victim impact statement, which was read on his behalf by his son, Mr Lee (54) said he had been a proud, hard-working man before the attack but had been forced into early retirement by an act of unprovoked violence. He told the court that the assault had not just caused him the normal physical agony but had devastated his life entirely. Mr Lee said the psychological effects were 'insidious and even more profound' and he had suffered chronic and persistent damage. The court heard he suffers from seizures and 'insufferable headaches' as well as blurred vision and post-traumatic stress disorder. 'I do not recognise myself,' said Mr Lee. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week He claimed that work provided him with structure, identity and pride but he was now 'no longer the same man' as every aspect of his life had been affected. Mr Lee said his family had also suffered as they were looking at a person who had 'faded into someone unrecognisable.' 'The emotional toll is impossible to fully explain,' he added. He described the assault as not a momentary injury but 'a permanent turning point in my life.' Mr Lee urged Judge John Martin for any sentence to reflect the seriousness of Gorecki's offending which had 'taken the remaining years of my life.' Pleading for leniency, Mr Kavanagh said Gorecki came from a relatively poor background and had suffered a lot of tragedy. The court heard his father died when he was very young, while his mother died last year and a brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in Ireland a few years ago. Mr Kavanagh said the defendant had also expressed remorse and shame for what he described as a 'one-off incident.' He said Gorecki was assessed as being at a moderate risk of reoffending which he believed was linked to his difficulty in finding employment. However, Mr Kavanagh said the accused had recently received the offer of a job at Arklow Golf Club. The barrister said Gorecki had also reduced his alcohol intake and had not committed any other offences since 2023. While not seeking to blame Mr Lee for what happened, Mr Kavanagh said the bouncer had stood 'toe to toe' with the accused and spoke into their faces. Sentencing Gorecki to three and a half years in prison for the assault offence, Judge Martin suspended the final six months for a period of 12 months on condition that the accused place himself under the supervision of the Probation Service on his release from prison for two years and remain free of alcohol for that period. The judge observed that the accused had only demonstrated partial responsibility for an offence that was 'quick and drink-fuelled' but whose effects were 'lasting and very significant.' He said Mr Lee had suffered most horrific injuries in an attack where Gorecki had delivered 'the first and last blow.' The judge noted that the defendant had only entered guilty pleas after a jury had been sworn in to hear his trial. He also took into account that Gorecki had made no concrete expression of remorse or any offer to make amends. The judge offered his best wishes to Mr Lee and expressed hope that the finalisation of the case would bring him some closure. Sign up to the Irish Mirror's Courts and Crime newsletter here and get breaking crime updates and news from the courts direct to your inbox.
