Man says gardaí offered to drop charge for information

A man who was accused of carrying a knuckleduster after his arrest at a road checkpoint claimed yesterday a garda told him the charge would be dropped if he supplied information on crimes.

Christopher Sutton made what his own solicitor, Joseph Cuddigan, described as the very serious allegation against the gardaí.

Firstly, he denied he ever had the knuckleduster and claimed he was told at the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork that he could be charged with having one, but the charge would be dropped if he supplied information.

Mr Cuddigan said Sutton, 30, was told on the morning of his arrest: “You can be charged with having a knuckleduster unless you go away and get information for the gardaí.”

The defendant alleged he received several phone calls in the following month asking for information.

Sutton testified that the unnamed garda whom he could not identify put it to him that he could help his friend, who was also in the car, to avoid difficulties.

Sutton from 12 Cattlemarket Avenue, Gurranabraher, Cork, said the garda told him: “If I wanted to help out my friend, let him (the garda) know what is going on around the northside, who is doing what and when.

“He was ringing my phone on a number of occasions — private number. I had to give the SIM card to my dad,” Sutton said.

Gardaí Joe Maher and Matthew O’Mahony testified that the car was stopped at a checkpoint at 4am on Aug 23, 2012, and Sutton was arrested and taken to the Bridewell where they said a knuckleduster — produced in court yesterday — fell out of Sutton’s pocket.

Cross-examined by Inspector Michael McGuire, Sutton denied ever having the weapon and said he was going to Mallow fishing when gardaí stopped him.

Judge Olann Kelleher said he had no doubt the knuckleduster had fallen out of Sutton’s pocket. Then told of 30 previous convictions, the judge imposed a six- month suspended sentence.