A garda sergeant has been ordered to complete 80 hours of community service after being found guilty of assault and of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Sergeant William Doyle was convicted at Waterford District Court of the two charges, having pleaded not guilty at a previous sitting of the court. He now faces dismissal from An Garda Síochána.
In a case taken by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on foot of an investigation by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), the court heard evidence on a previous occasion that there was a "commotion" in a room at Waterford Garda Station on the morning of 9 March 2022, and that a slap was heard, while a prisoner accused of assault was being detained.
There was also evidence that Sgt Doyle, of Waterford Garda Station, was seen standing over the prisoner with his hands on the prisoner's shoulders when other gardaí returned to the room in question, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) room.
The prisoner immediately said that he had been assaulted by the sergeant.
Sgt Doyle had been sitting close to the AFIS room when the prisoner was inside and asked the prisoner if he was the man "who assaulted his girlfriend". The prisoner became riled by this, Judge John O'Leary said today in court when reviewing the evidence, and became "irrationally agitated" towards the defendant, Sgt Doyle.
The prisoner was shouting obscenities at the sergeant and the latter said to two detectives who were in the room, "two secs lads" which they took to mean he wanted a few moments on his own with the prisoner.
'Several blows'
They left the room and heard a "commotion" and the prisoner said the sound was the defendant "assaulting him with several blows".
The other gardaí re-entered the room and Detective Garda Seán Lane saw the defendant with two hands on the prisoner's "shoulder area".
Garda Rachel Pratt said she heard a "slap" which she described as "a skin on skin sound" and also saw the sergeant's hands on the prisoner's shoulders. The sergeant was seen "pinning the prisoner back with his arm on his [the prisoner's] neck," the court heard.
Garda Pratt, who was a probationer garda at the time, was "confused" as to what to do, the judge said, and asked Sgt Doyle, who was her superior officer, what she should enter in the station custody record.
The sergeant told her, she said in evidence earlier this year, not to mention what happened and suggested that she say the prisoner was being restrained.
Garda Pratt made an entry to this effect in the custody record but later recorded a corrected version of events.
The sergeant denied pressuring Garda Pratt and told the court in June that he told her he could not put words in her mouth and that the matter needed to be recorded.
He denied the charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and section 2 assault.
Judge John O'Leary found him guilty of both charges.
The judge said that it was in asking Garda Pratt to "falsify" the custody record that he "confirms his guilt" of the section 2 assault, there was no other "plausible conclusion".
He took into account the assault victim's own evidence that he himself had two previous convictions for assault, the judge said.
"The court is fully satisfied that the accused stood above [the prisoner], when he was sitting down and vulnerable, and assaulted him. That went beyond any reasonable force and was certainly not consented to," Judge O'Leary said.
In relation to the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, which he said was the more serious offence in this case, the judge said the public needs to have confidence that everything in the custody record of any accused is being done according to the law.
"The public need to know that the same law will be applied, without fear or favour, to uniformed gardaí as to any member of the public."
He convicted Sgt Doyle on both counts.
The accused's barrister, David Staunton BL, said his client had been a member of An Garda Síochána for about 30 years and had been a family liaison officer in some very serious investigations, including for victims of sex abuser Bill Kenneally.
He had "exemplary service" to the force in "a very public-facing role," the barrister said.
'Extraordinarily out of character'
The incident as represented in court was "extraordinarily out of character" for William Doyle, Mr Staunton added, and his client had been presented with "an extraordinarily difficult situation" on the day in question, dealing with a torrent of abuse from the suspect.
"There is hindsight and there is boots-on-the-ground type situations that gardaí find themselves in."
It would be fair to say, the barrister said, that the findings of the court "will lead to immediate dismissal" of a man with long service to An Garda Síochána, and a family man, and would possibly be "terminal" for his employment prospects.
Judge O'Leary said he was very conscious of Sgt Doyle's long and good service and said it was "a very sad situation" for him. He accepted he had been subjected to "a torrent of abuse" and had acted on the spur of the moment.
The evidence of attempting to pervert the court of justice was "very much at the lower end of the scale" for such an offence, he said, and he had a four-month prison sentence in mind.
After being told that William Doyle was willing to carry out community service, he directed 80 hours of community service, in lieu of a four-month prison term. He took the assault charge into consideration for sentencing purposes.
The judge indicated that recognaisances in the event of an appeal would be €500 in the defendant's own bond.
