A MAN on trial accused of threatening to kill a serving Limerick Garda Detective has claimed he was beaten and dragged out of his house by Gardaí when he was being arrested for making the alleged threat, his lawyers this Thursday told the Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
Barristers for Kieran ‘Bunny’ Barry told his trial, which began on Wednesday, that their instructions from Mr Barry were that he was “sprayed (with pepper spray), beaten, and dragged” out of his home by Gardaí on the night he was arrested.
Mr Barry (51), of Galvone Road, Kennedy Park, denies threatening to kill or cause serious harm to Detective Garda Dean Landers, Roxboro Road Garda Station, as well as charges relating to possession of cannabis for sale/supply; possession of cannabis; and resisting Detective Landers in the execution of his lawful duty.
The offences are alleged to have occurred on May 3, 2019, at Mr Barry’s home.
Detective Garda Landers told the court that he and other Gardaí responded to a call of a dispute between a group of people outside Mr Barry’s home at around 9pm on the night in question.
Garda Landers said he was left afraid for himself and his family after Mr Barry allegedly threatened to murder him, his children, and his mother.
“I was worried, I’ve been in Limerick 13 years and a Garda for 15 years, but he looked me in the eyes and told me he was going to murder me, and I 100% believed him,” Detective Landers told the court.
“He said he would bury me somewhere where no one would find me. He told me ‘I know where you live’, he told me he was going to give me a slow death and that he would give my kids an even slower one.”
Detective Landers further alleged that Mr Barry told him that “he was going to call to my mother and he was going to f**k her and strangle her”.
Detective Landers said Mr Barry allegedly fled the scene but was arrested a short time later at his home after Garda Landers said he deployed pepper spray into Mr Barry’s eyes in order to incapacitate him on the night.
Senior defence counsel, Andrew Sexton, put it to the Garda witness that “Mr Barry’s words are that he was sprayed, beaten, and dragged”, to which Garda Landers replied: “I definitely wouldn’t agree with that.”
Sergeant Eoin McDonagh, who at the time was serving at the rank of Detective Garda, based out of Roxboro Road Garda Station, gave evidence on Thursday that he arrested Mr Barry after Garda Landers and another detective restrained the accused in the front room of his home.
Sergeant McDonagh said he was aware Mr Barry had been pepper sprayed but he did not know anything about Mr Barry’s allegation that he was beaten.
He agreed under questioning by Amy Nix, junior defence counsel for Mr Barry, that his own contemporaneous notes written on the night in question included that Mr Barry shouted at Gardaí, “f**k ye all, corrupt bastards”, but that he had not included this in his prepared statement.
“Sometimes statement aren’t made for days or even months,” Sergeant McDonagh said.
He agreed with Ms Nix that the prosecution’s Book of Evidence contained Garda witness statements only as no other witnesses, independent of Gardaí, had made a statement.
“No one came forward,” Sergeant McDonagh said.
Sergeant McDonagh agreed with prosecution counsel, John O’Sullivan BL, that Mr Barry’s alleged corruption comments were made after his arrest while he was being cautioned, and that his own contemporaneous notes from the night had been disclosed to Mr Barry’s legal defence team prior to the commencement of the trial.
Both Sergeant McDonagh and Detective Garda Landers agreed under questioning from Mr Barry’s defence barristers that it was their opinion that Mr Barry appeared to be intoxicated on the night.
Detective Landers, who was armed with his official Garda-issue handgun on the night in question, said Mr Barry ran at him and threatened him again after he had entered Mr Barry’s home through the front door, which was unlocked, and identified himself as “armed Gardaí” for the purposes of arresting the accused.
