A Garda Superintendent, cleared of assaulting a bar manager and racially abusing a bouncer at a popular Dublin gay bar, has avoided a recorded conviction for a lesser public order offence.
Dublin-based Gavin O'Reilly, 41, from Co Cavan, had denied assaulting the Pennylane manager Emma Parks, under section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act and engaging in threatening, abusive, and insulting behaviour on the same occasion, section 6 of the Public Order Act charge.
His three-day non-jury trial at Dublin District Court resulted from an incident at Strand Street Great, while off duty and socialising at the popular bar on the night of 26 August 2023.
On 11 September, Judge John Hughes found that complainant Emma Parks and bouncer Marcos Peter Inacio were not credible witnesses and he dismissed the assault charge.
Their evidence was contradicted at several points by CCTV footage, the recording of her 999 call, which the judge described as "window dressing" or "stage managed", and their accounts in the trial.
Footage showed she pushed Mr O'Reilly when he had returned to the venue to complain after he and two friends were asked to leave for being too noisy, not able to stand, and intoxicated.
'Wholly inconsistent'
Judge Hughes branded that claim about his demeanour in the bar as "wholly inconsistent with the CCTV footage".
He also recalled how door staff witnesses said the manager tried to provoke him, held her phone close to his face and that it was the accused who was pulled and pushed down on the street.
Ms Parks began filming him until he snapped her phone out of her hand.
Finalising the case, Judge Hughes said the senior garda had also been pushed to the ground outside by door staff, and Ms Parks then confronted him and proceeded to photograph him in a humiliating manner.
He recalled contradictory evidence and remarked how easy it was to make an allegation against a garda, while it was an offence to make false reports.
The public order charge had a continuum of stages, but the judge found the accused guilty "in limited circumstances", confined to his interaction and gesticulating with Ms Parks after he returned to the bar.
Judge Hughes elaborated that he would have put it down to finger-wagging and nothing more, but for the fact that he stood so close to and was towering over her.
He did not accept that the breach of the peace included events outside the bar where Mr O'Reilly was confronted and pushed by Ms Parks.
He dismissed the claim of alleged racial abuse of a Brazilian bouncer, Marcos Peter Inacio.
Another doorman, Osmar Fontes, who initially claimed to have heard a racial remark against his colleague, conceded under cross-examination that he did not hear those words said at all, and admitted he learned about it only from his colleague later.
The judge also ruled out that an offence was committed during the superintendent's interaction with gardaí who carried out an unlawful arrest.
Garda Sergeant Niall Godfrey, who later arrived, saw Mr O’Reilly handcuffed in a patrol car but did not think the accused was intoxicated and described him as perturbed but in no way violent.
Mr O’Reilly told the sergeant the bar manager had "orchestrated" the situation.
He was de-arrested by the gardaí at the scene.
The Garda Ombudsman then took over the investigation, which led to the court prosecution.
'Agent provocateur'
The senior officer’s defence maintained he was roughed up and dragged by doormen and that the complainant, Ms Parks, acted as an "agent provocateur".
His barrister, Garnet Orange SC, acknowledged that applying the Probation Act typically leaves an accused without a criminal record.
However, he stressed that even such an outcome for this offence, where his client had the lowest possible level of culpability, could still be viewed as a "black mark" on the superintendent's unblemished 21-year career.
He added that it could lead to disciplinary action, with the risk of possible dismissal.
Mr Orange submitted that it would far outweigh the gravity of the situation and be utterly disproportionate.
The court heard the accused offered to make a substantial charitable donation to help a garda third-world fund in the hope of having the case struck out instead.
Judge Hughes commented that the officer had been "dragged over the coals" during a three-day hearing and had suffered professional difficulties, as well as public odium, due to his senior position in An Garda Síochána.
He held that Mr O’Reilly, who was promoted to superintendent three years ago, should donate €1,000 to a registered charity helping build schools in Gambia.
The money was handed over in court, at which the judge deemed it appropriate to strike out the remaining charge.
