A garda has told the High Court reasonable force and not "massively excessive force" was used to arrest a man who claims he was wrongfully detained and assaulted.

A garda sergeant told a man who had just been pepper-sprayed and arrested "you may hit your girlfriend but you won't hit me", the High Court has heard.

Gerald Jennings, a property manager from Carlow Town, claims he was arrested because gardaí wrongly believed he had carried out a savage street assault on his fiancée, beautician Martha Kowalczyk.