A bread delivery man who claimed he was injured and assaulted by gardaí during the capture of two armed bank robbers has settled his High Court action.
Seamus O'Neill, 63, from Farm Road, Annagassan in Co Louth, had sued the State and the two robbers.
The armed men used Mr O'Neill's van, and took him with them, as they attempted to escape.
Mr O'Neill claimed gardaí beat him and handcuffed him when they dragged him from the van, believing him to be one of the robbers.
He said they had used excessive force and failed to heed warnings that he was a hostage rather than a criminal.
He said he was also injured when gardaí threw a stun grenade into the van.
The case began against the State last Friday. The case against the robbers - Gareth McKeown of Mount Pleasant in Newry and Desmond Carroll of High Street, Bessbrook in Co Down - had been adjourned.
This morning, Mr O'Neill's Senior Counsel, Eoghan Fitzsimons said the parties had agreed a settlement and the case would not be proceeding.
The case was struck out and Mr O'Neill was awarded his costs.
Court told of 'dramatic' chase
On Friday, the court heard McKeown and Carroll were part of a three-man robbery at the Bank of Ireland in Dunleer, Co Louth, on 1 September, 2000, when a firearm may have been discharged.
Their getaway car collided with a truck and while the third man, who was never caught, ran off across fields, McKeown and Carroll hijacked a garda car at gunpoint.
They drove towards Dromin before abandoning it and running off into fields themselves.
Shortly afterwards, Mr O'Neill was delivering bread to an elderly couple's home in Dromin when he was approached by his male customer who winked at him and at that point McKeown came out of a house carrying a gun.
He told Mr O'Neill they were taking his van and him with it.
They set off with Mr O'Neill sitting on the gearbox in the middle of the van before they came upon a garda checkpoint and drove through it.
There followed a "dramatic and lengthy" chase in which the van collided with a number of cars to get past traffic and a roadbock which had been set up by gardaí in Slane.
Mr O'Neill told the court he was terrified throughout the journey when they reached speeds of 130km/h.
Just outside Slane, a garda car managed to bump the van and spin it around while another vehicle boxed it in to prevent it getting going again.
Mr O'Neill said he felt relieved at this point because it was "now in the hands of the gardaí".
But then a stun grenade was thrown into the cab and Mr O'Neill said he found himself blinded from the explosion.
He said he was dragged from the van, thrown on the ground, hit repeatedly and handcuffed.
There were two people on top of him and only when a detective arrived who knew him was he released. He told the gardaí he was not a robber.
He was in terrible pain when the gardaí got off him and he spent seven days in hospital.
He had to have shrapnel from the explosion removed from his left arm which was broken, along with treatment for burns to his chest, right arm and injury to his left thigh, the court heard.
He continues to suffer from those injuries and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress.
He said although he had worked all his life, as a farmer, publican and then a breadman, he had not worked since because of the effect of the injury and stress of the incident.
Subsequently, a garda inspector visited Mr O'Neill and when he said someone had hit him on the day, the officer replied "yes, my men hit you," he said.
Cross examined by Conor Maguire SC, for the State, Mr O'Neill said he did not know if it was reasonable, if it later transpired he was a robber, for the gardai to have pulled him out of the van.
Put to him that at no time did any of the gardaí hit him, he replied he did not know but "somebody hit me".
