A consultant psychiatrist employed by the HSE who bit two gardaí when he was being arrested on a night out with colleagues in Limerick has had the charges against him dismissed.
The man pleaded guilty to three charges of assault and to being drunk in a public place in the early hours of July 7 2012.
The charges arose from an incident when the accused man got involved in a confrontation and had to be restrained by staff outside Nancy Blake’s bar in Denmark Street in Limerick.
He then bit two gardaí when they tried to arrest him.
A member of the bar staff also had his hand bitten in the incident.
Limerick District Court heard the psychiatrist believed his drinks may have been spiked that night.
Judge Aeneas McCarthy heard testimonials from a number of medical colleagues and HSE clinical staff, who said the psychiatrist was held in the highest standing among his peers.
They said he was compassionate in his care of some of the most vulnerable patients in the midwest region.
Judge McCarthy accepted his behaviour was "an aberration" for someone who was clearly an excellent psychiatrist.
He dismissed the charges under the Probation Act.
