Garda awarded €16k after punch breaks nose

A GARDA whose nose was broken when he was punched by a man he had arrested following a fracas has been awarded €16,000 damages in the High Court.

Barrister David Richardson told Ms Justice Mary Irvine yesterday that Garda Mark Carty and a number of colleagues had been called to an incident at a boat in Athlone harbour in April 2007.

A number of men, members of a group of about 20 “highly intoxicated” men and women who had been celebrating, had been arrested and taken to Athlone Garda station.