A 21-year-old man who claims he was beaten by four gardaí when he was 18 has admitted he has 27 previous convictions.
Owen Gaffney was being cross-examined on the third day of the trial of four gardaí accused of assaulting him while his mother was locked in a bathroom.
Mr Gaffney told defence counsel Hugh Hartnett that he was ‘no angel’ during his teenage years and admitted having a conviction for assaulting a garda whose jaw was broken.
But he denied there was history of violence towards gardaí.
He admitted that he had a total of 27 previous convictions but denied deliberately leaving this out of his first statement to the Garda Ombudsman.
He said he told them he had been arrested a number of times but 'didn't actually know what the word conviction meant'.
Owen Gaffney said he served a prison sentence after he failed to complete a community service order. He also admitted resisting arrest in the past.
However, he said on the day of the alleged assault he was not being arrested.
It was put to him that gardaí were in his flat to arrest him in relation to an incident the previous day. He replied: ‘There was no incident’.
He said Garda Alan Conlon was laughing while the assault took place in his bedroom. He denied that he had lashed out at gardaí when they entered his bedroom and that they were trying to restrain him when he was on the floor.
Mr Gaffney said Garda Sean O Leary had been battering him since he was 16 years old.
It was put to Owen Gaffney that he had never mentioned Garda Eoin Murtagh in any of his statements, yet made detailed allegations against him in the witness box.
Mr Gaffney said until recently he did not know Garda Murtagh's name, and believed his name was Doherty.
Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan for Garda Murtagh said nowhere in any of the statements was there an allegation of assault made against Garda Murtagh.
Mr Gaffney said he was sure he had mentioned it in his statements but accepted now it was not there.
He said however that Garda Murtagh ‘knows in his heart, deep down that he did do these things.’
Gardaí Sean O Leary, Eoin Murtagh, Alan Conlon and Claire Delaney, who were stationed at Kilmainham and Kevin Street, have denied entering a flat at Basin Street upper and assaulting the teenager on 17 February 2008.
Mr Murtagh, Mr Conlon and Ms Delaney are also charged with falsely imprisoning his mother. They deny the charges.
The trial continues.
